Wide Activity for the Rwandan Volleyball Federation

Kigali, Rwanda, June 1-: The national volleyball federation of Rwanda headed by M. Robert Bayigamba is involved in a major development program for the next 6 years. Under the coverage of the Rwandan ministry of sport, youth and culture and with the support of Elite Sport as head of project, a company specialized in strategy and sport management, directed by Laurent Torrecillas a former international French player, the federation oriented its operation on 4 major ways:- Building a strong elite, focusing its actions on the national teams as well as the 1st division championship (men and women), Intensifying the training courses for coaches, Detecting and training the young talents and Developing the activity in the whole country.

The men national team had a tour in Europe for 3 weeks, mixing practice and friendly matches. This tour was the occasion to launch the new staff, composed by a French head coach Gérard JOUAULT, Olivier BARBIER as physical coach and Emmanuel NDUNGUTSE as assistant coach. The national league started since February with a new format based on beach volleyball like table which make the competition more attractive for the public, the media and the private partners. With 12 teams registered for the men and 8 for the women, the competition is composed of 10 stages of 2 days for each.

Recently, a course for the first division’s coaches was held in Kigali. 17 coaches participated in this course, which included items of physical preparation, the team management, the training organization and increasing their knowledge about technical and tactical skills. Two more courses will be organized this year.

The federation organized an international tournament celebrating the memory of the players who were killed during the 1994 genocide. This annual tournament which is told to be one of the best organization in the great lakes region, aggregated men and women teams from Rwanda, Uganda (Nemo Stars, Kampala AVC, Kampala CC), Kenya (KCB, Nairobi CC) and Burundi (Burundi UN, les As). APR won the men tournament while KCB team from Kenya won the women’s.

From June 9 and June 20, the federation in partnership with the UNHCR, will organize special contests for peace in the occasion of the World Refugee Day. For more than one week, both organizations will manage educational workshops dedicated to volleyball, friendly tournaments in 3 different refugees’ camps and hope to get all the necessary agreements to hold an exhibition match in Kigali between the men National volleyball teams of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.