Power Forward celebrates Ninth year anniversary

Power Forward, a youth development initiative of ExxonMobil, NBA Africa and the international NGO PanAfricare teaches health literacy (malaria prevention and hygiene promotion) and life skills such as leadership, respect and personal responsibility through basketball and other programming to positively impact Nigerian secondary school students in FCT.

Students from 40 secondary schools made up 42 teams (30 boys’ teams and 12 girls’ teams modelled after the NBA and WNBA respectively) played 105 games in the ninth season of the Power Forward Basketball League.

ExxonMobil continues to be a corporate leader in the fight to reduce the global burden of malaria. To date, the program has cumulatively reached more than 200,000 youth in school and vulnerable communities with life skills information, provided more than 12,600 people with malaria prevention strategies and treatment, and established 134 handwashing stations. More than 14,107 students have been engaged in air pollution awareness campaigns with more than 2,000 female students from the 30 schools engaged in a Menstrual Hygiene Management Awareness Program.

The Power Forward program was inaugurated in Nigeria FCT on November 19, 2013 with a tip-off event featuring NBA and WNBA representatives, Nigerian policymakers and other stakeholders.

The NBA and WNBA players and legends who have participated in the program to date include Naismith Basketball Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon and Swin Cash; former NBA players Obinna Ekezie (current CEO of Wakanow), Olumide Oyedeji, Kelenna Azubuike, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Jerome Williams and Festus Ezeli; LA Sparks’ Chiney Ogwumike and former WNBA players Evelyn Akhator, Mactabene Amachree and Astou Ndiaye.

Between 2000 and 2020, ExxonMobil committed more than $170 million in grants to the malaria cause, reaching more than 125 million people throughout Africa and Asia with over 15 million bed nets, 5.6 million doses of antimalarial drugs and more than four million rapid-diagnostic kits.

ExxonMobil celebrates 20 Years of Malaria Initiative in Nigeria.

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