TheCable

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has promised to mentor 300 students from 10 secondary schools in Abuja.

The schools are: Model Secondary School, Maitama; Rahinna Model College, Jikwoyi; Raberto Schools, Wuse II; Divine Mercy Secondary School, Asokoro; Glisten International School, Jabi; Bicardos International School, Kubwa; Government Secondary School, Karu; Government Secondary School Zone 3, Government Secondary School, Garki and Government Secondary School, Airport.

The students will be part of the 10,000 beneficiaries of the Power Forward programme organised by ExxonMobil, National Basketball Association and Africare, a non-governmental organisation.

According to Franck Traore, technical director, NBA Africa, the programme, which is in its fourth year, aims to equip the participants with life skills information, distribute 6,000-bed nets and install 20 hand wash stations in schools.

“This programme has held three major kick off events with more than 6,000 students and VIPs in attendance. We have embarked on several interventions at IDP centres for malaria prevention and sanitation exercise,” Traore said in a statement.

He added that Power Forward, through its focus on health, builds on efforts by the ExxonMobil malaria initiative to combat malaria in Nigeria.

The programme was first launched in Abuja on November 19, 2013, with representatives from the NBA and Women’s national basketball association (WNBA) and policymakers in attendance.

“Since 2000, ExxonMobil-supported programmes have distributed more than 14 million bed nets, nearly three million diagnostic tests and more than four million anti-malaria treatments, reaching more than 125 million people worldwide,” the company said in a statement.

The world has made remarkable progress against malaria in recent years: between 2000 and 2015, global malaria mortality rates decreased by 60 percent and initiatives to combat the disease saved more than six million lives.