SELF Supports Youth in Zambia

Sports Education Leadership Foundation (SELF), a nonprofit established by Paul Revere Middle School teacher Holli Omori in 2007 to promote sports for women in other countries and foster awareness of global citizenship among long youth, continues to have an impact.   Omori, with students and former students, traveled to Zambia last July to build a basketball court in Mwandi’a village ravaged by the AIDS epidemic’and in December returned to Bangladesh to promote physical activity for women.   ’We also donated basketballs, clothes and shoes for the children in the schools,’ said SELF president Eunice Lee, a junior at Palisades High School. ‘Over winter break, we ran clinics for basketball, soccer and yoga.’ In addition to Lee, other Palisadian students who traveled to Bangladesh were Hannah Wasserman, Tucker Reynolds, Sage Lewis and Taji Hathcock. ‘We have big plans for this summer, too,’ said Lee, who is the PaliHi leadership secretary, the PaliHi debate team treasurer and is a member of PaliHi’s mock trial team. ‘We want to return to Zambia to conduct numerous basketball and volleyball clinics and construct a volleyball court. Our goal is to raise $10,000 to purchase beach volleyball kits, volleyballs, basketballs and to also help fund the cost of travel for some of the students.’ Omori, who grew up in Indiana, earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise sports and a master’s in education from Colorado State in 1989. She coached basketball at CSU, New Mexico and the University of Denver, but felt she spent too much time recruiting and in 2002 started teaching physical education at Revere. In 2007, Omori spent a month at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protshtan (BKSP), the national sports facility, and learned that physical education for girls in the largely Muslim country was either a version of musical chairs, or no physical activity at all. Omori was asked by Bangladeshi officials to return to the country. ‘I will, if I can also work with the girls,’ said Omori, who was an All-American basketball player for Central Wyoming College before transferring to Colorado State University, where she continued to play. They agreed, and Omori, who now coaches the Revere boys basketball team and was named the 2009 Nike/LeBron James ‘More Than a Coach’ award winner in Los Angeles, set up SELF to help youth develop SELF-esteem, SELF-confidence and SELF-discipline through sports and physical activity while instilling the value of global citizenship. ‘We are an active, passionate group that is striving to help the world around us,’ Lee said. ‘We need athletic gear to donate to the children such as new shoes, clothes, basketballs, volleyballs and soccer balls. Your generosity will be greatly appreciated.’ Contributions to the 501(c)3 are tax deducible. For more information, call Omori at (310) 218-9753 or visit theselfproject.org or YouTube: Self Project Bangladesh Trip (BKSP). Checks may be sent to SELF at P.O. Box 1496 Santa Monica, CA 90406.