Cheryl Jean-Paul to Represent Manitoba at AIA Program in Africa

Basketball Manitoba's Female High Performance Coach Cheryl Jean-Paul is
off to Africa in March as part of the Athletes in Action  She will be
spending one week in Zambia and two weeks in Rwanda. The main goal of
the program is leadership & coaching development.  Former Wesmen
player Stephanie Dyck and now current AIA staff in Quebec and assistant
coach of the McGill women's basketball team will be joining Cheryl on
the trip.  The trip also includes the opportunity to work with some of
the young women basketball players in Rwanda.  Details on the AIA
program can be found at...

 

 

 

The 1994 Rwandan genocide was the mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda’s Tutsis by Hutu militia. From April 6 and then over the course of approximately 100 days, at least 500,000 people were killed. Most estimates indicate a death toll of between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people. The world seemed to have abandoned this beautiful nation and it’s people. Now 15 years later Athletes in Action Canada has been invited to come and help rebuild this nation by training sports men and women to use the platform of sport to offer hope to what had seemed to be a hopeless condition. The ministry team of AIA staff, sports professionals, and executives will host a 3-day Sports Ministry Training Seminar and a 2-day “Leading Leaders - Building Nations” Sports Executives Conference. This will be the pioneering event to help launch AIA in Rwanda by working with their young AIA National leader, Vital Bizimana, Rwanda’s only AIA staff member. He will then be mentored by David Nyamu, the AIA Kenya National Director, whom we have trained to provide this type of leadership and vision for his portion of the South East Africa region.Zambia has over 600,000 orphans living on the streets and over 70% of the population under 21 years of age. HIV/AIDS is pandemic and most of the nation lives in the uncertainty of tomorrow. Our ministries offer hope to those living in hopelessness.

Since 2001, AIA Zambia ministries have exposed the gospel to nearly 5 million people and over 500 sports influencers have been trained to use sports to reach their nation. The 2009 BIGGER THAN YOU project will aid in the launch of the ZAMBIA ACTION SPORTS ACADEMY. The academy is designed to be a year round academic and sports school to educate, equip and train young athletes to discover and maximize their giftedness in the context of academic and athletic excellence through Christian education and godly character development. AIA will also host a 2-day “Leading Leaders - Building Nations” Sports Executives Conference and make connections for a basketball coaches training workshop. This project will allow Chris Musonda, Zambia’s only full time AIA staff member, to establish an on-going strategy of developing ‘young stars’ to become tomorrow’s sports ministry leaders and influencers for the gospel.

For over 30 years AIA Canada has partnered with athletes and coaches to share Jesus with sports influencers in Canada and around the world. In 2001 AIA Canada targeted the development of sustainable sports ministry partnerships in South East Africa. The initial partnership country was Zambia and now ministries are developing in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique,South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and
Zimbabwe. In 2006 the first AIA Pro Tour in South East Africa ministered in South Africa, Kenya and Zambia. We are committed to building movements of sports ministry by surfacing and training international sports leaders in how to reach their nation for Jesus Christ.This year Rwanda has been chosen for our next partnership to help Rwandans launch an AIA ministry to their nation.

More information on Athletes in Action can be found at http://www.athletesinaction.com/

GOOD LUCK CHERYL!