A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Aman Sports - an initiative of Aman Foundation, and Moin Khan Sports Academy (MKSA) to help promote and re-inject sports into the mainstream as well as underserved areas.
The signing ceremony held at Moin Khan Sports Academy here on Thursday. Addressing the ceremony Aman Foundation's CEO, Ahsan Jamil said that partnership would give a platform to identify hidden sports talent, specifically in cricket, amongst school-going students of Karachi.
Sharing the detail of project Ahsan Jamil said that the programme would be catering bottom of pyramid schools primarily and hence exposing them to the experiences and unique sense of fulfilment that only sporting achievement can give. "Under this partnership MKSA will provide expert guidance in implementing cricket academies and a support structure for cricket conduct across the city with international experts as well", he informed, adding that programme would include trainings in cricket, football, athletics and basketball for the first year and will expand to around 11 sports afterwards.
Aman Foundation's CEO said, "the future of the nation lies in the hands of children. At Aman Foundation, we are committed to creating systemic, scalable, and sustainable change, and re-injecting sport into the mainstream is going to play a huge part in drastically altering the social landscape and equity paradigm in the country."
Speaking on the occasion, legendary cricketer Moin Khan thanked Aman Foundation and Aman Sports for the step taken towards promoting sports in the segment where lack of facilities are causing deprivation in the lives of our people. He said, "it is an investment by Aman Sports in the future of Karachi and Pakistan." Replying to a question, Moin Khan said, "under this partnership with Aman Sports, we are planning to open 5-10 specialised cricket training centres and around 45 academies for sport in total.
Some of these would offer open admissions, while others will have pre-qualification and selection criteria, all across the five districts of Karachi. MKSA management will be working closely with Umer Rashid, Aman Sports Head Coach of the Academies programme. The coaches will receive regular training from them, as well as special sessions will be held for the academies' students.
Executive Director of Aman Sports, M. Faisal Mirza presented an overview of the programme and briefed on the mission, vision and strategy of Aman Sports. He said that Aman Sports was proud to be a part of the Aman Foundation, aspiring to make a difference in society by creating a meaningful push into grassroots sports development and academia, event creation, and sports marketing.
He further said it was extremely important to encourage involvement of our youth in healthy, organised sports activities. Among other initiatives of Aman Sports, the first trials for cricket specialisation are to be held on November 3 and 4 at Rashid Latif Academy, North Karachi.