After collecting more than 300 donated pairs of shoes for his Children of the Nile charity before the UA football spring game, Arizona men’s basketball forward Mabil Mawut found they were central to the success of a team camp held recently in his hometown of Bor Town, South Sudan.
Mawut said the Children of the Nile camp attracted more than 250 campers, with more than 85 of them able to receive donated shoes from Tucsonans that made it to South Sudan in part because a sympathetic Alaska Airlines manager allowed everybody in a family of six traveling from Tucson to Kenya to check a bag full of shoes for free.
Two campers stand next to a poster featuring UA forward Mabil Mawut to show off the shoes they received during the Children of the Nile camp in Bor Town, South Sudan.
“It was a great success!” Mawut said of the camp via text message.
Children of the Nile is now working on a project to pass on donated underwear and sanitary items from an August drive at Z-Street to those at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where Mawut was born.
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Basketball players go through drills at the Children of the Nile camp in Bor Town, South Sudan.
Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @brucepascoe
Bruce Pascoe
Reporter
