Papua New Guinea is lacing up for Twilight Basketball

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea (BFPNG) launched the third phase of Twilight Basketball, at the Taurama Aquatic and Indoor Centre last week.

There was a noticeable difference to this week’s Twilight festivities, as participants were given free shoes thanks to the Grass Skirt Project who donated 100 pairs of shoes to the BFPNG. This donation will mean that each week of Twilight Hoops 20 children will receive a free pair of shoes.

This is great news, especially for two resourceful little hoopers. During the BFPNG’s last phase of Twilight Basketball two participants arrived to play, although only one had shoes. Without hesitation, one participant decided to remove one of his shoes and give it to his buddy so that he could play with at least one shoe on.

One shoe? No problem for this Twilight Hoops participant

This goes to show that positivity and sense of community surrounding sport and the Twilight Basketball program in particular. The Port Moresby community has really gotten behind this program with 100s of children turning up each week.

Children 15 years and under get to play 5x5 where anyone over the age of 16 can test their skills in the 3x3 competition. In addition to normal activity, BFPNG teamed up with the Papua New Guinea High-Performance Talent Pathway Team to undertake some talent identification.

“The aim in conducting the sessions for now, is community engagement. However it may also provide an insight into any areas we may be missing for our talent identification and research project,” said Talent Pathways Coordinator and James Cook University Honours Researcher, Kieran Sciberras.

The third phase of Twilight Basketball will continue through to the end of November. Twilight Basketball is part of FIBA’s Hoops for Health program made possible by the support of FIBA’s Foundation and Australian Government funding through the Pacific Sports Partnership Program.

FIBA