Renew your faith, USPA members told

Sports journalists and sportsmen have been urged to add the face of faith in sports and in their daily work to boost their spiritual life.

The call was made by Monsignor Gerald Kalumba in his homily during the Uganda Sports Press Association annual memorial service at Christ the King church in Kampala on Wednesday.

The service is held in memory of all sports journalist who have passed on in the past four decades including four former USPA executive members; Kenneth Matovu, Peter Ekarot, Leo Kabunga and Francis Batte Jr, who after their death in a road accident in 2001, this service and other road safety campaign initiatives were started.

"We should practice our faith constantly without break, like the different sportsmen who work every day until they achieve; they make a name out of hard work, so it should teach us also to get that spiritual courage and persevere as we go through our other rigors of the world," Kalumba said.

"Athletes carry 'their cross' before winning and earning as the rest of us enjoy and are entertained; therefore the cross should not discourage us but should be a sort of courage for all of us to work seriously and constantly without breaking as we carry out our different duties," Kalumba advised.

Later USPA president Sabiiti Muwanga praised the role of partners City Tyres and Standard Chartered Bank in the memorial and road safety campaigns over the years saying they had since become part of the USPA family and because of that, other partners like KCCA FC and UNRA had joined this year's campaign.

"As we leave church today let us renew our faith in whatever we do and in our professions," Muwanga remarked.

Monsignor Gerald Kalumba poses with some of the USPA executive members past and present after the memorial service. Photo by Michael Nsubuga

Francis Batte Sr. the father of one of the late thanked USPA for "keeping the fire burning" by continuously remembering those who passed on in the profession.

Uganda National Road Authority's director of road and infrastructure protection Reuben Tumwebaze said they had joined the USPA Road Safety Campaign to strengthen their recently launched 'Fika Salaama' road safety campaign on Masaka and Bombo roads, to reduce on the number of people dying in road accidents which he put at 3000 per annum.

The service was attended by among others FUFA president Moses Magogo, Cynthia Mpanga from Standard Chartered, Herbert Bashasha (City Tyres) the families of the late journalists, former USPA presidents, sports association heads and other officials from the sports fraternity.