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05/09/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/09/2024 14:49

Sargent Senior Gives Back to his Native Nairobi—through Sports

Sargent Senior Gives Back to his Native Nairobi-through Sports

Marcel Awori (Sargent'24) sponsors Kenyan youth basketball team and league with weekly Sargent stipends

Marcel Awori (Sargent-24) has connected 15 young men and women with high school and university basketball scholarships through the nonprofit B.U.I.L.D Sports Africa.

Student Life

Sargent Senior Gives Back to his Native Nairobi-through Sports

Marcel Awori (Sargent'24) sponsors Kenyan youth basketball team and league with weekly Sargent stipends

May 9, 2024
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Marcel Awori grew up 30 minutes outside the heart of Kayole, Nairobi, where he trekked through gravel paths and penetrating stares to practice with FAM Kenya, a youth club basketball team whose mission is to create scholarship opportunities and positively impact local communities across the African diaspora through sports.

"I was thinking about…am I going to get robbed, am I going to get hurt, am I going to get sick, and it sounds really sad now, but that's just the honest reality of what was going through my head as a 14-, 15-year-old kid walking into a slum for the first time," says Awori (Sargent'24), now 22. "But then as you continue to go back, you realize there's no chance anyone does anything because you're helping and not acting or feeling better than anyone. I'm so much more confident walking around those areas now."

As a Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences graduating senior, those lessons are what drove Awori to launch his nonprofit, B.U.I.L.D Sports Africa, which focuses on developing sports infrastructure and magnifying player visibility in Kenya. The initiative funds the 20-man team from afar primarily with weekly $200 stipends the budding financier-philanthropist makes as a Sargent College George K. Makechnie Media Technician.

FAM (short for family) Kenya, runs on support and grit.

Chester Oluoch (left) and Awori are the backbone of B.U.I.L.D Sports Africa. The pair work together to recruit and sponsor elite youth basketball talent from across the African diaspora. Photo by Woopy Sports

The Nairobi-based nonprofit was established in 2014 by Java House coffee mogul Kevin Ashley and former Syracuse University basketball player Kueth Duany. Its purpose was to bring five local private school children from families of privilege together with 15 less fortunate children living in the Komarock, Mathare, and Kayole neighborhoods, Awori says, which are notorious for gang violence and drug issues.

"Parents really just want to protect and save their kids from falling into that way of life out of necessity, which is one of the big reasons sports picked up in those areas," Awori says. "So many privileged people live in their own bubble and don't even see or know the reality of what people are living like day to day in less privileged areas. Playing for FAM was an eye-opener for me."

Public school systems in Nairobi lack the infrastructure necessary to offer sports teams. Before COVID-19 struck Kenya, the FAM system was set up so parents of affluent teammates would chip in water, food, and transportation to struggling teammates.

A decade later, over a dozen players from FAM now study in the United States, in Kansas, New York, and Illinois, on either full-ride high school or college scholarships, along with 15 placements in the heart of Nairobi.

"Kids did not know when their next meal was coming from [after] a game, but because they were playing, that didn't matter," Awori says. "It's their outlet and their chance to be on a level playing field with everyone, no matter their economic background."

Kids did not know when their next meal was coming from [after] a game, but because they were playing, that didn't matter. It's their outlet and their chance to be on a level playing field with everyone, no matter their economic background.
Marcel Awori

Sports are seen as an expensive and unnecessary addition to youth lives in Nairobi, Awori says. FAM Kenya recruits local gifted athletes, some from refugee camps in Kenya and others from South Sudan, to nurture, train, and perfect their craft.

"We focus on supporting youth programs with one clear objective: to inspire them to dream big by building self-esteem and giving a big number of our Sudanese and Congo brothers and sisters a sense of identity," says Moses Musosi, the chairman and CEO of Far East Basketball (FEBA). Musosi helps organize tournaments for B.U.I.L.D Sports and Giants of Africa.

Financing FAM Kenya is not just about winning games and producing the best players, the former BU men's soccer defendermaintains. It's about using sports as a vehicle to create more opportunities for children, just as he did. 650

Inspiring youth from the African diaspora

Awori's aptitude for entrepreneurship sparked at 16 years old when he moved to Massachusetts halfway through high school to board at the elite Northfield Mount Hermon School. Anxious to kick off his soccer recruitment journey, the self-starter says he viewed the upheaval "as a business trip" to play Division 1 sports and pursue his passion for behavioral health at a prominent American university.

"I know a lot of people that were a lot better than I was that didn't even get recruited to go to university," Awori says. "There's just no visibility, because there's no infrastructure allowing people to know what kind of skills exist."

The nonprofit Giants of Africa, founded by Toronto Raptors' President Masai Ujiri, became B.U.I.L.D Sports' blueprint. Both initiatives focus on inspiring youth from the African diaspora with programs centered on empowerment and leadership, on and off the playing field.

Awori and Ujiri first connected through Awori's father in 2021, as the then-sophomore at BU itched "to learn a bit more about the sports space as a nonathlete" soon after parting ways with the Terrier men's soccer team halfway into his remote freshman spring semester.

An informal internship exposed Awori to the lucrative world of sports business and the operations behind Giants of Africa and Ujiri's work. "He's doing what I want to do on the continent-making a difference, giving back, and setting up a platform where kids can strive and succeed," Awori says.

Inspired and emboldened by Ujiri, that summer Awori returned to Nairobi, where he met with his former FAM Kenya basketball coach, Chester Oluoch, to float his idea for a nonprofit. "He let me know that the team system had essentially fallen through during COVID and had lost almost all support," Awori recalls.

FAM Kenya, stacked with the same players seven years later, lacked a free court to practice, kits, and rides to and from games. So Awori contributed his first Sargent paycheck for $250 worth of shirts and shorts.

"I realized it takes so little to help, especially because things are so much cheaper in Kenya… I can start slowly but surely pay for as much as I can afford," he says. "That, hopefully, turns into a university scholarship, and just like that, the kid ends up with a university degree. That's what's important to me…picking programs that have education at the forefront."

Beyond player kits, Awori endows shoes, food, league registration, tournament fees, and transportation. He recently introduced the Spanish stat-keeping technology NBN23 to Nairobi's 50-team KSBC basketball league. And yes, he sponsors that as well.

Awori hosts tournaments in Komarock, Mathare, and Kayole, where he played for FAM Kenya growing up. Photo by Woopy Sports

Pretty much anything that comes up, Awori is willing to pay for through fundraising on B.U.I.L.D's GoFundMe, facilitating partnerships that offer free physiotherapy and subsidized kit manufacturing, sponsorships, and 70 percent out of his own pocket.

"A player got injured a couple of months ago, so I had to pay for him to get some stitches," Awori says.

"The kids adore and appreciate the work that Marcel is doing to make sure that the program keeps running," Oluoch says. "We were not doing well financially in terms of the upkeep of players, equipment like jerseys and shoes, transport going to games… Marcel came through when all this was lacking."

Two-day tournaments centered around "taboo themes," like mental health, are how Awori increases player visibility and builds the infrastructure necessary for local sporting success. Before every game at the U-21 tournament last summer, Awori gathered players in a circle and explained the importance of shedding their shame and vocalizing suppressed feelings.

"I want to use what I've studied at BU to pioneer change," he says. "I know that there might not be as many qualified professionals [in Kenya] who understand the mental health aspect of things. People are not getting the support they need, especially in Africa, because mental health, in or out of sports, is not spoken about nearly enough."

High-intensity, competitive games featuring 6 girls teams and 14 boys teams drew crowds of spectators and led to full-ride scholarships at the University of Nairobi for four young women and three young men.

"I ended up spending about $1,000 on the tournament, but if I could pay $1,000 to get three girls university scholarships right now, I'd pay that in a heartbeat," Awori says. "It's a no-brainer for me."

After graduation, Awori is eager to return to Nairobi, where he intends to expand B.U.I.L.D's player outreach initiatives, increase infrastructure development, and fundraise for sports beyond basketball, all while developing his start-up, MT5 Global, a consulting agency that does venture capital.

"I can't even explain how much B.U.I.L.D Sports Africa means to me," Awori says. "I want to help people that deserve opportunities. Unfortunately, the world is not in a fair place, so it takes more initiative from people in positions of privilege to help out and make it as equitable as possible."

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