Joy as Daku donates boxing kits to Arua city club

By Andrew Cohen Amvesi

ARUA. There is untold excitement among the members of Arua city boxing club in Arua city after receiving an assortment of boxing equipment from Farouk Malingumu Daku, a Ugandan professional boxer based in the Netherlands.

The boxing kits worth millions of shillings were officially handed over to the boxing club officials during a press conference at Arua Golf Course grounds on Wednesday March 6, 2024.

These include; nine pieces of boxing gloves, three pieces of boxing pads, eight pieces of mouth guards, five pieces of bandage gear, three pieces of advance boxing gears, seven pieces of head guard and two pieces of skipping ropes.

The donation follows a promise made by Daku to support the home based Arua city boxing club during his visit to Arua in January this year.

The four-time boxing champion who has been investing in boxing clubs in Kampala said the support is aimed at promoting local boxing talent back-home.

While receiving the boxing kits, Muhamad Okulega, the Arua city boxing club head coach expressed gratitude to Daku and said the donation will help to address the challenges they have been facing especially during training sessions.

“I want to thank Malingumu Daku the Farouk for the support to Arua city boxing club. Since we started this boxing club in Arua here, we have faced a lot of challenges due to lack of equipment in the gym. As a coach, I could come for training without equipment and that made my work very difficult in building skills and giving techniques to players, but now at least I can see that there is a future because of Daku’s donations to the club,” Okulega said.

“Equipment like gloves, like headgear can make it perfect to spar with players in the gym and to give them more tactics and techniques on how to maneuver their way to an opponent, how to know the common boxing mistakes, and best movement in the attacking of the opponent. I’m really very happy for Daku about this donation,” Okulega added.

Arafah Cissy Ayike, a 17-year-old 60kg light weight player of Arua city boxing club was equally very happy for Daku for thinking about the club.

“This is one of the challenges we have been facing in the gym. You might find one glove being shared by four to five boxers because these gloves here are expensive materials. You know boxing is expensive, people see it as cheap and so on, but I can assure you that a good pair of boxing gloves is shs100,000 and above. So, I’m really happy that Farouk bought for us these kits and by doing so, he is making boxing cheaper for us and we are becoming more interested in it,” Ayike said.

Similarly, Rasheed Osino, the President of Arua city boxing club said they are really so happy for the donation made by Daku which he said is a clear indication that the boxer will also build the boxing ring he promised for Arua city boxing club.

Mokhtar Amin Lika, the Arua Central Division Sports Officer called upon the public to join Daku in supporting Arua city boxing club so that the team can attract many players to showcase their talent which may eventually result in producing more boxing champions from Arua city and West Nile at large.