 |
|
Inspiration| Silent Shooter......Hannah Nyambura
Despite being deaf and mute, basketball player Hannah Nyambura is
making loud statements on the court. The ball hits the court silently, and no referee’s whistle or time buzzers disrupt Hannah Nyambura’s wonderful world of basketball. Born deaf and mute, she has learnt to live her life accompanied by silence and vibrations. “I learnt sign language when I was around four years,” she says in a written response. Communication with Hannah is a little different and can prove to be difficult without an interpreter since having to write down everything tends to limit her thoughts. “I started practicing sport in high school, but it took the encouragement of my cousin Andrew Maina, who was playing club basketball for KCB (Kenya Commercial Bank) to try the game,” she says. Despite her disability, she thoroughly enjoys playing the game. In 2003, the 25 year old trained with a local basketball team, a rewarding achievement even though her teammates and coaches did not use sign language. “I learnt a lot from six months’ of training with the KCB Lionesses, “says Hannah. Two years ago, the genial athlete trained alongside some of the world’s best deaf female players in Sweden, and dreams of teaching the game to the deaf children. The experience was invaluable for her, especially in her role as shooting guard at the Queens Deaf Club – the only ladies’ deaf team in the country that competes in the Nairobi Basketball League. So how does Hannah make it work? Communication off the court may be difficult but the language of the court is universal. “I understand most of the calls but I prefer it if the referees used coloured flags to call out fouls and use more hand signals. Sometimes you are on the court and you notice the opponents have stopped because the referee has blown the whistle. “ Unlike majority of the deaf (Kenya has a population of over two million deaf people) who do not get a chance to study, Hannah went to the Reverend Muhoro Secondary School for the Deaf. She now works as an order accountant at a hardware store. “I studied basic accounts on my own after a stint at the Karen Technical Training Institute for the Deaf, which teaches basic courses.” Despite the challenges, Hannah believes she will make her big break both on and off the court. “I like being smart and trendy, “ she says. “I’d love to study fashion design.” Hannah is happily dating her Ugandan boyfriend of four years but is not in a rush to get married because she feels this may distract her from her goals. Plus, she signs jokingly, “I’m not ready to get pregnant now.”
|
| ©2004-2010 An Official ALSA™ Product All Rights Reserved. No portion of alsabasketball.co.ke may be duplicated, redistributed, or manipulated in any form without authorized permission or acknowledgement of source. the Webmaster | Sponsors |
 |
