Lae Academy visits children’s ward at Angau

By PATRICIA KEAMO
THE Lae Kids Soccer Academy programme, run by veteran PNG striker Raymond Gunemba with help from Lae City Dwellers players, visited children’s ward at the Angau Memorial Hospital Children’s Ward on Sunday.
With an aim to support the community beyond football, Gunemba told The National that his vision for starting the academy was to teach more than just football to the next generation of players, instilling strong discipline.
He said they were fortunate to receive support from Panamax Pacific Ltd, who made it possible for the academy’s kids and his team to bring joy to the sick kids at Angau by sharing about football and distributing products given by the company.
The academy targets children as young as 5 years old to 15 year olds.
“I have been running this academy programme for almost four months now to build the next generation of our kids in teaching them basic skills of soccer,” said Gunemba.
“Apart from teaching them to play soccer, the programme is aimed at instilling self-discipline principles in their life, not just in the field but outside as well because of the impact of peer pressure and influence.
“When you try to teach these values to kids who are in their teens, between the ages of 16-18, they are already at the stage of being influenced so this age group of young kids is the perfect time to start so that they grow up with these values.” Gunemba said with no major corporate backing, he was fortunate to have the support of his fellow players including sister Meagan and other players from the Lae City Dwellers Club.
He acknowledged Panamex led by the manager Ronald Ram and his dedicated team, including current Kapuls goalkeeper Ronald Warisan, and Simonta Simongi for their contributions to the work of the academy.
“We received some products from Panamex as well as from Colgate and we decided to reach out to the hospital and have the academy kids visit and interact with their peers in the children’s ward,” Gunemba said.
“The reaction we received from the patients as well as the staff there was very positive as it was a rare situation to have kids visiting their peers in the hospital to share the joy of football as well spread a little happiness to them.
“This is a positive message that we want to get across in our country by using football as a bridge to reach communities outside of the football field.”
Gunemba has appealed for corporate backing to continue to grow the academy and develop football in the country.