Netball determined to be an inclusive sport

By BENJAMIN KOITAKA
Netball Papua New Guinea is aiming to be an inclusive sport with the participation of people living with disabilities and schoolchildren, says president Julienne Leka-Maliaki.
During a workshop in Port Moresby last week, Leka-Maliaki said talks were underway to include men and women, schoolchildren and people living with disabilities to participate in netball, making it an inclusive sport.
“We have to be diverse with our values and being inclusive is our priority to align with the Government’s approach,” she said.
“We have to consider those living with disabilities and introduce school-based programmes.”
Leka-Maliaki, who is also the PNG Sports Foundation women in sports commissioner, said the workshop was about developing a new strategic plan for netball for the next three years (2019-2021) as the previous outlook had ended last year.
“The sports market has changed over the last few years and we want to capture the opportunities and review where we have not improved and progressed,” she said.
“What has come out from the workshop since the beginning was the need for netball to be an operationalised sport.
“We need to have an office and people to work there, as we can no longer operate as a volunteer organisation because the sport and membership has grown.
“A lot of boys, girls and women want to participate, so we need to re-organise ourselves to be more structured. We can learn from rugby league about how it has progressed over the years.”
She said this was also in preparation for the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa (Apia), the Nation’s Cup series in Singapore, the 2020 regional World Cup qualifiers in PNG and the national super league six-team competition.
According to Netball PNG, the launching of the strategic plan will take place in June.