Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike have always valued education.
So it's no surprise the Stanford graduates wanted to do something to
help educate girls in their parents' homeland of Nigeria.
The WNBA stars
launched a fundraising competition Wednesday that's open to middle and
high school basketball teams across the U.S. The goal is to raise money
to support UNICEF programs focusing on girls' education and empowerment.
The eventual goal is to give one million girls in Nigeria access to
quality schooling by providing scholarships for female teachers and
establishing safe places for girls to learn. The U.S.-born sisters, who
became the second set of siblings drafted No. 1 in a major sports league
— joining Peyton and Eli Manning — figured they could use their clout
to help get it done.
"We want to be able to give back to Nigeria, and UNICEF is a great
way," Nneka Ogwumike said in a recent phone interview with The
Associated Press. "We were blessed with an incredible education that we
want to make sure others have an opportunity to have."
The mass kidnappings of schoolgirls in the African nation have added a
sense of urgency to the sisters' desire to help. They had planned to
get involved with UNICEF before the kidnappings, and were distraught to
hear about the 300-plus girls taken in the remote northeast area of
Nigeria in April.
"Everyone knows we're Nigerian and that's a huge part of us and our
culture," Chiney Ogwumike said. "To be able to extend our basketball
connections to help others is great. The most important thing we can do
is help educate people and we understand that's a lot bigger than what
we do on the court."
Nigeria has 10 million children out of school — the highest number in
the world, according to Caryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund
for UNICEF. She said the money raised will help with child protection,
access to education, quality education and training teachers.
"These two young women understand that they've been given an amazing
opportunity," Stern said in a phone interview with the AP. "They're very
reachable and want to be a part of it, not just finance it.
"They want to motivate others to be a part of it. They want to build a
movement, that's what they are trying to do here. They want to be
leaders in that movement."
The team competition rewards those who sign up the most donors. The top prize is a private basketball clinic with the sisters.
"The biggest thing we want is for the kids to have fun with it," said
Chiney, the top pick in the WNBA draft by the Connecticut Sun in April.
"Whatever there reason is for getting involved we support it. If you
care about meeting Nneka and I, you can get donors. If you care about
bring our girls back, go get donors. If you care about playing
basketball and want to do something fun, you can get donors."
Other prizes include autographed jerseys, pictures and the chance to interact with them via Google Hangouts.
"At the end of the day, this could be an annual thing that becomes
huge and impacts the relief fund we're trying to help," said Nneka, who
plays for the Los Angeles Sparks.
Source: AP
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