Pupils from Mapera DEB School in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County have every reason to smile after Kenyan-born Canadian-Rugby League star Enoch Wamalwa delivered school bags to every pupil, during his visit to the school.
Through his initiative #RugbyRebuilding which seeks to elevate communities through rugby, Wamalwa also delivered sanitary towels, oral hygiene and other school supplies.
Wamalwa who started his education at the school before leaving for Canada added that the initiative was just a continuation of his plans, as he had already finished building classrooms for the school.
“Rugby gave me a platform and I want to use that platform to help my community. We delivered 500 school bags and other school supplies among other things. I had also helped rebuild 3 classrooms and now I have delivered bags with school supplies, oral hygiene products, feminine hygiene products, and school supplies,”
“The supplies were in form of donations from friends and fans. Organisations such as Ontario Virtual School headed by Kheirunnissa Lakhani played a huge role, through their donation, in the success of the initiative,” he added.
Wamalwa further stated that the initiative was entwined with Kabras RFC’s mission of elevating the Western Region community, and therefore it was appropriate to invite some members of the Kabras team including manager Geoffrey Messo and Assistant Coach Edwin Achayo, who doubles up as head of development, to join him in the project.
“I have been keenly following Kabras’ cooperate social responsibility and I was impressed. I asked the (Kabras) boys to attend and help me hand out bags,” he said.
Wamalwa poses that his next project will be delivering shoes to the school intending to change the scope of donations from just one school to various schools in the coming years.
“I collected the bags through my brand that I started called RugbyRebuilding. Some supplies, including oral hygiene products, feminine hygiene products and school supplies came in as donations from my friends and fans in Canada. My next project will be delivering shoes to these pupils, hopefully before I return to Canada,” he said.
Wamalwa, famous for his hard carries during his play days played for the Canadian Rugby League side, with the biggest highlight of his career being selected in the 2017 Canada team that featured in the 2017 America’s Rugby League World Cup qualifications tournament.
