Politixia
DAKAR, Senegal – UCLA women’s basketball partnered with the NBA Africa in conjunction with Sports for Education and Economic Development (SEED) Project to put on the Louise Jones Girls Empowerment Clinic for local youth in Dakar, Senegal, on Tuesday.
The Bruins are one of the first schools in the Power Five to hold a clinic on the Island of Gorée, hosting local participants on an outdoor court on the island. The island is a historical landmark in the world – it was the largest slave-trading center on the African coast between the 15th and 19th century. It is estimated that between 15 and 20 million enslaved people were sold out of Gorée, with an estimated six million deaths coming directly from this center of the transatlantic slave trade.
“Today was incredibly impactful to watch basketball uniting cultures and races on one of the most powerful realities in African history,” said Complete Sports Management CEO Lea Miller-Tooley. “To see UCLA embrace this with the locals is a memory to last a lifetime,” said Miller-Tooley.
More than 30 girls participated in the clinic with UCLA women’s basketball on Tuesday, coming together to connect local youth with the Bruins through basketball. UCLA’s student-athletes spent time teaching ball-handling, passing, shooting, and team offense before breaking off into competitive groups at each basket. The Senegalese youth also taught the Bruins dances and chants as the clinic wound down, celebrating the local culture and sharing some of Senegal with UCLA’s team.
The SEED Project was established in 1998 by Amadou Gallo Fall to help provide academic and athletic opportunities to local youth in Senegal. The Project’s mission statement outlines that it has the “opportunity to educate and empower a new generation of socially conscious leaders” as more than 64 percent of the Senegalese population is under the age of 24. According to UNESCO, 78 percent of Senegalese youth aged 15-19 drop out of high school before completing their studies, and only 39 percent of women are literate in the country. During the summer of 2020, the SEED Project also helped provide essential food and household items to 500 low-income families in Senegal to give temporary relief from the COVID-19 pandemic to families with children.
Notably, Fatou Diagne graduated from SEED Academy before going on to attend and play women’s basketball for Purdue University from 2018 until 2021. Diagne was the first SEED graduate to attend college in the United States – she played 85 games for the Boilermakers, starting all 23 of her appearances during her final year at Purdue. The Bruins will face off against Purdue on opening night of the 2023-24 season on Nov. 6.
To learn more about the SEED Project, visit their website here.
