Funke Oshonaike, a Nigerian international Table Tennis Player, has distributed kits to 50 children from her Foundation, Funke Oshonaike Table Tennis Foundation to enhance their proficiency in the sport.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Oshonaike competed for Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Oshonaike started her playing career on a street called Akeju in the Shomolu area of Lagos State in the early 1980s as a young girl.
The International ping pong player made the donation at the just concluded Table Tennis Festival, held at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall in Surulere, Lagos State.
Oshonaike, who spoke with NAN on the sidelines of the festival, said that the gesture was her way of giving back to the society, especially, to encourage children to take up table tennis as a career.
She said that her foundation was a symbol of the sacrifice her parents had to make at the beginning of her career.
“I have 50 kits to give out because I have been doing that since the beginning of the tournament. But I have over 100 kids here; I don’t know how I am going to fix it.
“If I am not doing this, I will be hurting myself because these children put smiles to my face.
“I used to be like one of these children because I started my career from Shomolu; my dad had to borrow money for me to get my first racket.
“For you to get good table tennis kits and equipment now requires good money as they are very expensive.
“Table tennis is looking as if it is for the rich people; one will need close to N200,000 to get a good racket,” she said.
The Nigerian-Germany-based table tennis player said that the gesture was also to erase the notion that the game is for the rich.
She added that having such kits would help the children develop faster with more concentration and love for the sport.
Oshonaike, who was defeated by the Egyptian Hana Goda applauded herself for coming fifth in the just concluded Table Tennis tournament.
“It is not easy for a veteran like me coming 5th in Africa and I lost to the phenomenal Hana Goda of Egypt.
“I love it that we had a female Nigerian in the finals, Fatima Bello, though she was defeated by Goda.
“This is a good development for our girls and I will be ever ready to support them,” she said.
NAN
