In life, we at times meet people with big hearts who are always ready and willing to help those who are in need. However, on rare occasions, we get to meet individuals who go above and beyond in their quest to make the lives of the underprivileged in our society better.
This is the story of Nancy Steinman who is the current Junior Golf Foundation representative for the Central Rift region. I happened to run into Nancy during the 12th leg of the Safaricom Golf Tour which was held at the Nakuru Golf Club.
This was after a teacher from the Ngala School for The Deaf kept referring to her as the benefactor who enabled them to come and play at the Safaricom Golf Tour. This made me curious as to who this Nancy was and what motivated her to sponsor these kids.
What I came to learn was that Nancy got to know about the school while she was searching for a place for a girl with a hearing impairment from Maasai Mara whom she has fostered since she was 4 years old . You see, Nancy is a mother of many having taken it upon herself to foster kids from underprivileged backgrounds in a bid to give back to society. This is something which she has been doing for the past twenty years.
Being a golfer, she has always endeavored to teach the kids that she fosters golf. This is because she believes that doing so imparts life skills on them which can help them later on in life. Some of these life skills includes discipline, patience and concentration not to mention that it is an enjoyable game.
As such, when she went to the school and being the Junior Golf Foundation representative, she wanted the kids to become members. However, there was limited time to the tournament which meant that she could not enroll them into the Foundation. Thus, she made a decision to sponsor them from her own pocket which meant paying for their transport and lunch as they prepared for the tournament. Not only that, she also provided clothing and golf kits to enable the kids play in the tournament since they came from not so well off families. As part of the preparation, she took the kids to the range for 4 days and on the 5th day, she took them through the 18 hole course. On the 6th day, they played in the tournament.
Surprisingly, one of the kids from the school, Jecinta Njeri performed really well in the tournament. She managed to emerge the best in her category after playing golf for just 6 days, imagine what she could have achieved with more preparation!!
During this time, one of the challenges that she faced was that the tournament was happening during the school holidays. This meant that the kids had to ask for permission from their parents and being that they are from underprivileged backgrounds, the parents were initially opposed to the idea because they felt that the sport was meant for the rich. However, I am glad that Nancy was able to change their mind otherwise we would not have been able to witness the greatness of Jecinta Njeri. This is essentially what the Safaricom Golf Tour is all about, changing the perception towards golf.
Nancy is planning to introduce the kids from Ngala School for The Deaf to the Junior Golf Foundation so that they can be able to continue playing. The Foundation enables anyone who is 21 years and below to be able to access and play in any golf course across the country after paying Ksh. 1,000 annually. Thereafter all one needs to do is pay a green fee of Ksh. 100 when playing at a course. This goes a long way in making the sport accessible and will hopefully nurture a new generation of golfers.
Nancy had nothing but nice things to say about the Safaricom Golf Tour which has a tournament for the Juniors. This is because she felt that it brought about competition for the Juniors enabling them to improve. She was also grateful for the fact that the kids from Ngala were given an opportunity to play in the tournament something which was new to them.
This goes to show that the Safaricom Golf Tour is having its intended effect of both demystifying the game as well as giving an opportunity to those who would have otherwise not managed to play. As they say, every shot is an opportunity and no one signifies this more than Jecinta Njeri.
Jecinta Njeri, a deaf girl who overcame the odds to become a winner at the Safaricom Golf Tour