AFD, NBA Africa Equip 100 PE Teachers to Make Basketball Inclusive

100 Kenyan physical education teachers stepped onto a basketball court in Kitengela not as coaches, but as students learning how to ensure that children with disabilities are never left on the sidelines of the game.

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group and NBA Africa convened the educators at the Fam Sports Arena for a day-long immersive workshop, marking the Basketball Experience Disability Inclusion (BE-DI) Teachers’ Awareness Day. The session formed part of the wider Basketball Experience programme, a partnership that harnesses the sport to advance education, life skills, and equal opportunity for young people.

Rather than simply hearing about inclusion, the teachers lived it. Through classroom sessions and hands-on court drills, participants worked through the Jr. NBA curriculum, absorbing how to teach the fundamentals of the game while keeping sessions safe, age-appropriate, and genuinely open to every child regardless of ability.

At the heart of the day was a deliberate shift in mindset: disability inclusion as a starting point, not an afterthought. Educators explored adaptive coaching methods, accessible activity design, and curriculum adjustments aimed at dismantling the barriers that too often keep children with disabilities watching from the stands instead of playing on the floor.

Kita Matungulu, Director of Basketball Operations for NBA Africa, told Buzz Central that the purpose of the training was to create a ripple effect far beyond the court. “This training is so important because it provides capacity to the coaches the understanding is for them to carry these skills and go back to their own communities and schools and teach it,” Matungulu said.

“We want to have that cascading effect. That’s where it’s not just the leading and top coaches coaching basketball. The entire community and schools can experience the growth of basketball through the teachers. It provides a larger legacy for the program.”

The training was delivered alongside the Kenya Red Cross, whose life skills module demonstrated how basketball can build teamwork, resilience, leadership, health awareness, and a sense of social responsibility. Organisers stressed that when teachers are equipped to respond to diverse learning needs, sport becomes a space where children of all abilities grow together developing not just athletic skill, but character.

Matungulu acknowledged that significant hurdles remain if the game is to reach its full potential on the continent.

“The main challenge we are facing across the continent remains infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure is a challenge, and without it we can’t advance in the way we want to advance,” he said. “At the same time, it’s capacity for coaches, the human capital. We can see so many tall, strong young players, but we need coaches that can coach them, elevate the skills at the highest level.“

On disability inclusion specifically, Matungulu stressed that equal opportunity must be woven through every level of the sport from grassroots participation to elite competition.

“The idea really is to create activities that are equal. You see today that people with disability are here, but you also see that women are here. So our idea is to ensure that at every level whether it’s coaching or competing, we want to see them at that level,” he said.

“In the same token, they have an opportunity to play at the highest level. We want to make sure that broadening the base at grassroots means there will be a strong agreement to continue to have participation at the highest level with disability, and that’s what we build into.”

Organisers stressed that when teachers are equipped to respond to diverse learning needs, sport becomes a space where children of all abilities grow together developing not just athletic skill, but character.