Empowering Youth through Basketball: Looking Back on IAMGOLD’s Four-Year Partnership with Giants of Africa
IAMGOLD recently wrapped up its four-year
partnership agreement with Toronto-based non-profit Giants of Africa, which
sought to encourage the development of youth through the power of basketball
throughout our host communities in West Africa.
Spanning from 2021 to 2024, IAMGOLD’s
investment totaled $1 million to support the construction of four basketball
courts in our host countries of Burkina Faso and Senegal* and to facilitate a variety
of multi-day basketball and life-skills camps, with the goal of empowering
youth both on and off the court.
In October 2024, IAMGOLD and Giants
of Africa unveiled the final basketball court of the partnership in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, located right on the campus of University of
Ouagadougou — the country’s main university. The other facilities built during
the partnership include a multi-sports venue located in
Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso), inaugurated in 2023 and made up of
three separate courts for basketball, volleyball and handball and other
amenities, and two others, in Kedougou (Senegal) and Ouagadougou (Burkina
Faso). These courts opened in 2022 and 2021 respectively.
IAMGOLD’s investment included basketball
and life-skills camps in each region as well as mentorship camps. IAMGOLD was also
the proud sponsor of Team Senegal and Team Burkina Faso at the inaugural Giants
of Africa Festival in Rwanda in August 2023.
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For the past four years this
partnership has been an integral part of IAMGOLD’s comprehensive community
development program. “Building mutually beneficial partnerships with our
host communities is at the core of what we do at IAMGOLD. It is important for
us to be a responsible player in our industry and to give back to the community,”
said Renaud Adam,
President and Chief Executive Officer of IAMGOLD.
This
initiative was especially meaningful for our employees and host communities in
Burkina Faso, who will witness the legacy of this partnership firsthand. “We are grateful the long-term
support from IAMGOLD,” Giants of Africa Co-Founder and Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman
and President, Masai Ujiri, said. “Burkina Faso is a country that is at the
heart of Africa. And we’re proud that we were able to build a basketball court there
in partnership with IAMGOLD.”
About Giants of Africa
Established
in 2003 by NBA Champion and Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman and President, Masai
Ujiri, Giants of Africa has been partnering with companies such as IAMGOLD
since that time, with youth empowerment through basketball at the center of its
mission.
To
date, over 8,000 youth have participated in basketball camps and 37 basketball
courts have been built across 11 African countries. In 2021, Giants of
Africa made a commitment to build a total of 100 basketball
courts throughout the continent.
*In December 2022,
IAMGOLD announced the sale of the Company's interests in its exploration and
development projects in Senegal, which was completed is April 2023.