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BEIRUT: Gym shoes squeaking on the court, quick and hard bounces of a fast drive, chains clinking in the disruption of a successful shot - sounds familiar to any basketball fan, and soon to be heard first-hand by select youths who lack access to a sport they love through a program called GAM3 Zone. By MATT NASH Around 150 boys and girls, including disabled youths, aged 12-18 will start free basketball training on Sunday at the Qasqas municipal playground under the direction of professional coaches, says Mac McClenahan, the 26-year-old Beirut program manager for GAM3 (pronounced "game"), a Danish NGO funding the program.
The kickoff, to take place at 11 a.m. before practice starts, will feature an appearance by shooting guard Nisrin Dandan of the Women's National Team, and a demonstration by a wheelchair basketball team, among other activities.
Al-Riyadi guard Omar Turk may also attend the event, depending on his practice schedule, which McClenahan says he will not know until Saturday. The event is free and open to the public.
There were two unofficial qualifications for participation - enthusiasm for and commitment to basketball and limited access to the sport.
McClenahan sought help from local NGOs to find the bulk of the participants. The organizers passed out questionnaires in Qasqas and surrounding neighborhoods and then conducted face-to-face interviews based on responses. Interviews helped gauge the level of enthusiasm.
McClenahan wanted to be sure kids were "not joining up to be close to their friends or get a free T-shirt." The other unofficial qualification for participation was limited access to the sport.
"We want to open up the opportunity for people who wouldn't be able to [play basketball] through the help of their parents or school or things like that," McClenahan says. If a recruit was or could easily be part of a club or youth basketball program, they were not eligible for GAM3 Zone.
A small number of the youths chosen come from street promotion, simply asking passersby about interest and qualifying from there.
Recruits were also chosen from the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj al-Barajneh and some of the surrounding areas in the Dahiyeh. Here, McClenahan relied on Ahmed Iskandar, a friend and leader of one of three Boy Scout troops in the camp.
Iskandar helped recruit 29 youths from two of the troops. The neighborhood has no basketball court, or any other sporting field, so he is excited that the selected children will have a chance to play and make new friends.
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"That's the important thing for me," Iskandar explains. "They're going to go outside the camp and meet Lebanese kids. If you want to have a good Lebanon, you have to have good relations."
GAM3 also begins work this year in Cairo and Beirut, after a one-year delay in the aftermath of the violence and anger surrounding caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, with grant money from Cairo's Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute, says Managing Director Simon Prahm.
GAM3's primary objective in the Middle East is to bring a diverse group of young people together on the basketball court, he explains.
However, not wanting to raise fears of discrimination, GAM3 Zone did not ask participants their religion on the questionnaires.
McClenahan, an American pursuing a master's degree in Sociology at the American University of Beirut, heard about the organization from a Danish friend in Beirut. He was already familiar with the love of basketball in Lebanon because he's writing his thesis on the subject, and was able to help GAM3 establish contacts and plan the program. "Before they left, they asked me to run it," McClenahan recalls.
In December 2006, he started putting the pieces together, getting help from the Makassed Youth Volunteers Affairs Department, the Women's Council of Tariq al-Jdideh, the Rafik Hariri Association director of social health, and the Tariq al-Jdideh unit within the Social Affairs Ministry, among others.
The president of the Beirut Municipality Sports Committee, Toni El Khoury, says he is letting the program use the Qasqas facility free of charge. The Lebanese Basketball Federation is helping with media relations, McClenahan says.
In Beirut, GAM3 Zone complements GAM3's one-day, three-on-three tournament and focuses on teaching basketball. The tournament will be held later in the year, tentatively scheduled for September.
GAM3 Zone practices will be held every Sunday until July 8, with a small tournament at the end.
McClenahan plans to stay in Lebanon after finishing school to continue working on the program, and "just keep doing it till we can't do it anymore."
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