Excitement as CCSF, French Embassy Reignite Paris 2024 Experience

No fewer than 90 participants were held spellbound as the Chika Chukwumerije Sports Foundation completed its one-day workshop, held at the Springhall British School in Abuja.

The aim of the workshop, which was supported by the French Embassy in Nigeria and French Institute, was to inspire young participants and educate them about the Olympics, self-defence and taekwondo.

In the first part of the workshop, 40 secondary school girls were taught about self-defence – the importance of environmental awareness, techniques and the legal use of self-defence.

The practice session, supervised by Olympic medalist Chika Chukwumerije, included defence against attacks to the face and how to react to being held against their will.

The second half of the workshop had 50 children from the primary schools begin with inspirational stories about the Olympics before being taught about the Olympics and taekwondo.

The kids learnt about the Olympic motto, creed, flag meaning, Olympic cycles and sports in the Olympics, as well as life lessons about Olympians like legendary gymnast Simone Biles of USA, the inspirational Eric Moussambani of Equitorial Guinea, revolutionary Dick Flosbury of USA and Nigeria’s Taekwondo icon, Chika Chukuwmerije.

In introducing Taekwondo, the children were taught about the etiquettes of Taekwondo, as well as the rules, equipment and scoring procedures in Taekwondo, one of the current core sports at the Olympics.

Attaché to the French Embassy in Nigeria, Magaly Losange, lauded the impact of the programme on the participants and others present, including observers from the French Embassy and Institute Francais.

“It was wonderful. I did personally learn a lot. It was really exciting to see the kids so happy and very engaged. We hope that they will be inspired and be more interested in the pleasure of doing sports. It is not always easy to keep the kids focused but I saw that till the very end, they were very much engaged and had so much fun.”

The French Embassy Attaché went on to explain how the programme came about.

“We asked different sportsmen and women to come up with a programme that will celebrate the values of the Olympics, and also provide an environment to learn and educate the kids. When we received a programme from Mr Chukwumerije, we were not only impressed by his credentials but by the fact he was able to put together a programme that will help the kids to better understand the history of the Olympics and at the same time to learn about Taekwondo.”

Olympic Medalist, Chika Chukwumerije said, “I accepted to do this programme because I know it will add a lot of educational value to kids and inspire the young people. I loved this kind of impact so I was very happy to see the eyes of kids light up as we spoke about the different challenges of Olympians and how they overcame it. If anyone stops these kids and asks them about the Olympics and taekwondo, they will give a knowledgeable answer. This makes me happy.”

Speaking about self-defence for the secondary school girls, Chukwumerije insisted on the importance of self-defence training for all females.

“Ignorance leads to a lot of pain. There are so many simple things that females should know that will help prevent being in situations of being assaulted and bullied.”

The workshop lasted for three hours across two segments with participants flooding for pictures and autographs after a successful completion of the programme.