NASP successful in 7 of Namibia’s 13 regions

The National Archery in the Schools Program, or NASP for short, was developed in Kentucky in 2001 by the state’s departments for education and wildlife and Mathews Archery. It is a not-for-profit organisation with the mission to engage young people in target archery.

By early 2016 in Namibia, the programme had produced 115 basic archery instructors, 11 basic archery instructor trainers and three basic archery instructor trainer specialists.

A total of 17 schools from seven of Namibia’s 13 regions have joined the programme – all in the southern and central parts of the country. The remaining challenge is to reach the last six regions in the northern parts of Namibia.

Each school started with 10 bows, 50 arrows and five targets, to engage children aged 10 to 18.

In April 2016, 73 children from 11 of the participating schools up to 700km away competed at a national NASP competition. The archers shot at both 10 and 15 metres and finished with a 2D animal face round.

The top 32 archers were selected to represent Namibia at an All-Star event in South Africa, along with school-age competitors from the host country, USA, Zimbabwe and Canada.

NASP Namibia is a developing programme. It’s putting archery in front of young people across the country to find talent and grow the sport. The young athletes learn a skill, plus self-confidence, discipline, concentration and better grades in maths and physical subjects.

The future for archery in Namibia looks promising.