NAIROBI, Kenya, May 29 – The Ministry of Sports through the Sports Fund has continued to release funds to cushion sportsmen struggling during the current COVID1-9 pandemic, and Paralympians are next in line to receive their share.
Just like Kenyan Premier League players from 12 clubs who each received Sh10,000 for two months, a list of 231 Paralympians has been finalized by the Ministry and they are set to receive the same amount.
This is part of a further Sh20mn budget approved to the Ministry from the Sports Fund.
Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said she was working on five different drafted lists of sportsmen who will be assisted during this period. She has also noted that more national teams will come under consideration.
“We are also releasing the same amount of money to our most vulnerable National Team athletes in all our active Sports Federations for the same period of time. This is to enable them continue training for upcoming global events,” CS Amina told Capital Sports.
“All our national teams in all our active federations which were active in the current financial year are part of our program; those that were preparing for Olympics or any other international events across the globe,” she noted.
Adding; “We decided to give something small to every athlete in need. We thank all the federations for the continued corporation in identification and verification of data of these athletes.”
So far, the Sports Fund has released Sh50mn to the Ministry and CS Amina further said they will continue assessing the situation so as to cushion athletes who have entirely lost their income.
More sports disciplines are also set to benefit from the program, the priority being national teams.
“This exercise is going to continue over the weekend. The second installment will be smoother because we will have captured all the telephone numbers in our system,” CS Amina promised.