Suva (Fiji) - Basketball Fiji (BF) with the help of the Samabula Youth Community are influencing the community in Samabula to learn and play the game of basketball with the Hoops For Health Program.

Basketball Fiji donated backboards, posts, and rims in the Samabula Community at the start of the year, which is located just outside the greater Suva area.

After the installation of the court in April, Samabala Youth Community Leader, Malakai Gucake approached the National Federation for basketball to run basketball programs.

"Malakai was very proactive and reached out to us for a program and we are more than happy to oblige with Hoops For Health," shared BF National Basketball Development Officer(NBDO), Kenneth Taliu. "At first we only had a few kids because volleyball was more popular in the area, but as the weeks went on we started to get more participants as well as interested coaches," he added.

The Hoops For Health program focuses on youth; by introducing and teaching the basics of basketball while promoting a healthy lifestyle at a young age.

"At first we only had around 12-15 kids participating in our weekly programs, but after a few weeks, we were starting to get 40-50 kids per week. It was a great reception of the community and would like to continue basketball in the area," said Taliu.

Taliu shared that Basketball Fiji is planning to help develop the basketball community in Samabula with more programs and possibly a basketball tournament.

"The community youth clinics are just the start of a valuable relationship, Gucake has great plans to take basketball in his community to another level and this has been sparked by the donation of the rims and backboards," Taliu said.

"There will be other upgrades done to the venue like a roof over it and the expansion of the concrete floor. After all this they want to run their own basketball league, so the potential of Basketball impacting not only the youth but also the whole community is huge and we hope to achieve that with them," he added.

The Hoops For Health program is an Australian aid initiative implemented by Basketball Fiji on behalf of the Australian Government.

 FIBA