NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 12 – Harambee Stars midfielder Omollo is among those who will be fighting to be named the Community Hero during this year’s Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year (SOYA) gala to be held in Mombasa on January 24.
The Belgium-based Omollo has been nominated because of the work he does with the Johanna Omollo Foundation in Dandora where he began his football career.
The foundation which was started in 2017 has been supporting kids through education scholarships, mentorship and entrepreneurship programmes.
The foundation also provides sanitary pads to teenage girls among many other initiatives meant to uplift the livelihoods of the youth of the informal sector.
Over 80 kids have received school fees and other supplies while 200 girls benefit by getting sanitary pads every month.
The Harambee Stars player is also a member of Common Goal, a charitable organisation that draws willing professional footballers and coaches to donate one percent of their wages to non-governmental organisations working in football.
This year Omollo was named the winner of the FIFPRO Merit Award for his outstanding community work in Dandora.
However Omollo will face stiff competition from other worthy opponents to win the Soya award which apart from Safaricom as the title sponsor, has also been sponsored by the County Government of Mombasa, Kenya Pipeline, Communication Authority of Kenya, New KCC, Lapfund, Kenya Power, UBA Bank, Nairobi Bottlers, Kenya Ports Authority, NHIF, NSSF, Kenya Tourism Board and GOtv.
Omollo will battle it out against Elgeyo-Marakwet based coach Eric Kimaiyo, former national cricket team player Peter Ongondo and another coach Bernard Makumi, who works mainly as a volunteer in helping the mentally challenged athletes.
Kimaiyo, who is also the coach of world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei was nominated due to the good work he has been doing at his Kapsait camp.
He is credited with giving life to the former Fila athletics camp by pumping in money to help restart the camp and naming it Kapsait Training camp.
He also runs a school, Kapsait Athletics Secondary School which he mainly uses to tap talent.
Kimaiyo admits talented athletes who are allowed to study at the school at subsidized rates while those who can’t afford to pay school fees are allowed to study for free and pay the money later once they start making money in athletics.
World Under-20 champion Edward Zakayo is one of those athletes who are studying at the school among others. Apart from Brigid, other athletes who have gone through Kimaiyo’s camp are the likes of Elizabeth Romukal.
Others include Leah Kibet a semi-final at the IAAF World Under 18 Championships, East Africa Secondary School Games 5,000m champion Catherine Relin, Joseph Muigai, Reuben Longosiwa among others.
On his part Ongondo, a former assistant cricket coach has found a way of integrating the less privileged members of the deaf society into the sport.
He first started working with Pangani Special School before approaching Ngala School of the deaf in Nakuru where he tried to teach cricket.
They held their first mini cricket for the deaf this year which he fund raised through facebook with members of the cricket without boundaries also chipping in.
The deaf girls won two matches in the mini cricket held last month with two of them were given call-ups to the Under 19 national team trials.
Ongondo who works with two volunteers to help with translation solely caters for their allowances and sources for kits from the President of Malta Cricket Paul Bradley whom he approached when he took up this initiative.
Another nominee is Makumi who has used the power of sports to ensure athletes with intellectual disabilities access primary and secondary education. He has advocated various secondary school head teachers to admit athletes with intellectual disabilities.
He also supports and mentors his players to undertake economic activities from the money they make from sports.
Coach Makumi runs his club as a unified club, meaning that he gives opportunities and nurtures talents for youth with and without intellectual disabilities.
This has not only transformed the lives of the players but that of the community as well. Because of his efforts County Government of Makueni has recognized persons with intellectual disabilities and now the county mobilizes resources to support their sporting activities.
