Sierra Leone

Name of the program: Judo in Schools Number of school: 25 Number of children: 1784 Founding year: 2015 Founder(s) of the program: Idrissa Massaquoi and Fredrick Harris

About the program

The Judo in School project in Sierra Leone started with the aim to encourage children from all corners including deprived communities and schools to practice judo as a sport. This included Freetown and other regional leading towns of Sierra Leone. Besides boosting for participating in judo, we also empower our sport as a way of life. This is extremely beneficial especially for a third world country like Sierra Leone where children are poor and traumatized. Therefore, we see judo as a perfect addition, not only as a sport but for its’ moral code of ethic which can build a better society. 

It is known that sport can help change society. The physiology of judo and a well-designed judo training methodology can support all from recreational judo to professional level. We educate, entertain and encourage children to like judo and accept it as a way of life. We also work on encouraging all physical education teachers and all other school authorities to collaborate in the development of sports.

Dream

Our dream is to have judo as the biggest sport in Sierra Leone and develop over 10,000 judokas across the country within the next five years. In addition, we seek to develop a strong cadet and junior judo team towards the 2024 Olympic Games. 

Support next to IJF

The Association is working with the Government of Sierra Leone.

Highlights

• Regular media coverage
• Regular advertisement

Challenges

• Lack of judo coaches
• Lack of equipment

Best practices

• Moral codes

Our practices are based on the moral code of judo, whilst establishing a good working relationship with the teachers, school authorities, parents and children. The first judo skills we teach to our children is discipline and self-control.

• Fun-factor

Children learn easier when they have fun, therefore our training is combined with fun, entertainment, education and judo technics. We train primary school children within the ages of 5-12-year-old with the same approach in the school training system. It helps to popularize the sports, increases the number of judokas and a good future for world judo champions.

• Regular knowledge testing

Every sixth training session of each group we conduct a three minutes exam in both practical and theory to know if the children understanding what they learn. It is also a way to acknowledge if the judo teachers are training the children up to expectations. This exam is conducted in the present of the President of the Sierra Leone Judo Association and physical education teachers.  

News

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