Rwanda U18 basketball national team duo of Cadeau de Dieu Furaha and Osborn Shema left country on Thursday for the United States of America, courtesy of a fully sponsored scholarship at Quality Education Academy in North Carolina. 

Before their departure, which coincided with the closing ceremony of the ‘Giants of Africa’ trip to Rwanda, Furaha said they are going for studies but at the same time learn and improve their basketball skills.

"We are excited just like any other youth who got such an opportunity to develop a career in a vast basketball sporting country like the US. The most important thing is to work hard and to try to achieve our career goals,” he told Times Sport.

Furaha and Shema are among the lucky upcoming basketball youngsters, who will benefit from this program, having demonstrated their potential during the 2016 FIBA-Africa U18 Youth Championship staged in Rwanda early this month. Rwanda reached the quarter-finals for the first.

Rwanda Basketball Federation (FERWABA) secretary general, Richard Mutabazi, explained that, "Their going to study and learn basketball in the U.S. is proof that we have talent in Rwanda. What needs to be done is to give more youth such opportunities to enhance their careers.” 

"The partnership with Giants of Africa is among the outreach programs that have supported the federation (FERWABA) to identify such talent and we are happy to have them in Rwanda once again,” he noted.

Over 50 youth basketball players from different countries have benefited from the Giants of Africa initiative for the last three years—other countries include; Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda among others.

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