Guyana’s leading internationally recognised sporting body, the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), in an effort to fight the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, made a timely donation of protective masks to the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) on Friday.
This is was disclosed by Junior Hercules, national coordinator of the GABF during a brief interview yesterday with Stabroek Sport. Long serving sports enthusiast Kalam Juman-Yassin, President of the GOA, made the donation on behalf of the entity to the GABF.
Hercules, who also holds the portfolio of national senior men’s head-coach, received the donation on behalf of the basketball association. This presentation occurred at Juman-Yassin’s residence in Lamaha Gardens.
Hercules thanked Juman-Yassin and the GOA for the contribution, which will serve the federation well in their fight against the spread of the virus. The
GABF has officially suspended all activities locally, a move that will certainly help to curb the spread of the virus and follows identical positions taken by other sporting bodies.
“Obviously in keeping with the guidelines of the Ministry of Public Health and the World Health Organization, which advises that you always have a mask when leaving your home and we believe that this donation is timely, and we are very grateful to the GOA for this gesture. We believe that this is our small way of helping to fight the curve of the virus, and we thank the GOA for the donation,” said Hercules.
According to Hercules, the presentation, which accounts for a 150 masks, will be divided among the respective regional member associations of the GABF. He added that athletes, officials and administrators will be the beneficiaries of the gesture.
He said, “We will obviously need these athletes post Covid-19 and we won’t like anyone to get infected. Foremost we would like to protect the athletes, officials, administrators and anyone for that matter against this deadly disease. So far, we have made donations to Berbice Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) and Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA). The two that are outstanding are LABA and Bartica and which in the new week we will make the necessary arrangements to make sure that they have.”
Hercules added: “I sincerely hope that administrators and athletes adhere to the protocols which is whenever we are in the open or public that they use masks at all times. Adhere to social distancing and continue to wash your hands.”
Meanwhile, Hercules disclosed that the current pandemic will have a tremendous impact on the livelihood of the sport, adding, “From a financial standpoint, it will definitely affect international engagements to which we will now have to heavily rely on GOA to assist in future assignments. We have basically in keeping with the international body of FIBA, suspended all basketball activities, local, regional and international, until this issue is alleviated.”
