In 2004 Edwin Ekiring embarked on a journey that today ranks him among the finest badminton players in the world, and the best on the continent.
Ekiring spent most of his childhood in Nsambya where he later learnt to play badminton at the Sharing Youth Centre.
Today, the center has so many upcoming players who one day want to be like Ekiring, many names will stand out.
Brian Kasirye who was Ekiring’s teammate at the just concluded All Africa Games stands out.
On Thursday, Ekiring gave back to the kids with clothes and words of motivations as a way of inspiring them.
“We have so many young and promising players who need motivation to get better. Of course coming around, sharing the little I have and talking to them is one way of making sure we keep the badminton candle in the center burning,”
Currently based in Holland were he plays professional badminton, Ekiring has been at two World Championship and Olympics games respectively, thrice at the commonwealth games.
He believes that one day if the youngsters at Sharing and elsewhere in the country work hard and are handled well Uganda will be able to have more players at such big sporting events.
“They just need to keep on working, but also get financial support from Uganda Olympics Committee and National Council of Sports to buy equipment and help them travel for tournaments then we can produce more players to play at the world stage”
Nsambya Sharing Youth Centre director Fr. Hillary Guinko thanked Ekiring for the noble gesture and called upon many to emulate what he has done.
