Basketball Court For ESGRAMA

Massingir is a small and rural district in southern Mozambique located 80 miles from the nearest city, Chokwe, and sits along the border of South Africa and Kruger National Park. There is very little industry and the majority of the district's inhabitants practice subsistence agriculture working small farms, raising goats or cattle, and fishing. The town of Massingir is the district seat and also the location of Graça Machel Secondary School (ESGRAMA). ESGRAMA was built in 2010 and is the only secondary school (8th-12th grade) in the district serving 1,102 students from Massingir and the eight surrounding villages. The school consists of eight classrooms, an administrative block, a teacher's room, and a dirt basketball court. Because the backboards and rims are broken the court is not used and students are limited to only practicing soccer.

The court's current condition

Due to the lack of rims the court is not used

The one hoop that has a rim

It has long been a dream at ESGRAMA to pave the court and turn it into a multi-use court for basketball, handball, futsal, and volleyball, but due to the lack of financial resources in the district that has not been possible. Thankfully while we we might not have the money, we do have the support of the community and today count on a number of groups in Massingir wishing to help with the project. A local corporate sponsor has promised to provide all the necessary gravel and sand, students and teachers from the Technical School of Massingir has committed to producing the cement blocks needed and a group of teachers and students will serve as the engineers and provide the labor, and finally the district government will lend us vehicles to transport the material as well as a compactor. In total these donated materials and services come to an estimated value of $4,978 USD.

While it is incredible to have such great support within Massingir we unfortunately don't have the money for the rest of the materials and that is why we are asking for your help! The money raised here will be used to buy the rest of the materials necessary for the rehabilitation of the court which are the following: 3000 meters of rebar, 20 kilos of wire, 150 sacks of cement, 10 liters of paint, 2 backboards, and 2 rims coming to a total of $3,280 USD.

Currently there does not exist any type of sports court in the whole district so the rehabilitation of the basketball court would serve not only the students of ESGRAMA, but also benefit all of the youth in the community by providing an adequate space for the practice of sports in Massingir. A paved court would make a big difference to ESGRAMA as it would let us to introduce many new sports into our P.E. classes allowing students to learn new abilities, discover new forms of entertainment, and increase their ability to live a healthy life. Along with this once the court is finished we plan to form boys and girls teams for basketball and volleyball giving students a chance to learn how to work as a team, improve their athletic abilities, and represent the district in the annual School Games competition. Many students at ESGRAMA have never left the district so participating in these games would also offer a chance for them to expand their horizons and see other parts of Mozambique.

December marks the start of summer holidays at ESGRAMA and so we hope that during the next few months we will be able to raise the necessary funds so that we can begin construction by the time classes start in February. We project that in total it will take just three weeks to complete the project so with your help the students of ESGRAMA could be taking part in their very own March Madness. We would like to thank all who have taken the time to read our story and hope that if able you will donate to our cause and help us make our dream of a rehabilitated court come true. We wish you all the best and as we say here in Mozambique, "estamos juntos", we are together!

A full view of the court facing ESGRAMA