Game On! Youth Sports, a first-of-its-kind approach to providing kids with opportunities to reap the benefits of physical activity, is being embraced by youngsters in Dominica's Eastern District school system.

 

The Eastern District is comprised of 14 primary schools. The program is educating youngsters in the school system about the benefits of playing sports, and then providing them with sports opportunities after school and on weekends to participate in the already established Game On! Youth Sports program.

 

Game On! Youth Sports was launched by the National Alliance For Youth Sports to give kids in under-developed regions of the world the chance to learn and play a variety of sports in a fun setting with minimum adult involvement. Youth sports instructors trained by the National Alliance For Youth Sports travel to each of the schools once a week to administer the Game On! program.

 

Different sports are introduced during each grading period. Youngsters have learned soccer, track and field and cricket so far, and later this year they will be introduced to basketball and baseball.

 

Dominica is situated in the Eastern Caribbean, about halfway between Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago.