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Page 1 of 2 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OSHWAL YOUTH LEAGUE
- Has been informally existing under various names since 1928. Its roots lie in the Visa Oshwal Community, Nairobi & Oshwal Education & Relief Board.
- Officially registered as a Society at the Registrar of Societies, Sheria House, Nairobi in 1954
- Emphasis in the very early days was on sports, physical fitness, volunteerism and brotherhood. And most importantly – social reform e.g. discouraging child-marriage, promoting widow re-marriage, encouraging education etc. The Society also had religious connotations. Members of the League were considered social revolutionaries.
- In the 1970s the Women’s Wing was established as a sub-committee. Ladies actively participated in all the League’s projects. In that era a more cosmopolitan flavour was added to the League’s activities in terms of dinner dances, tours, fashion shows, whist drives/cards tournaments, dramas (which were acted by the League’s members) etc.
- Sports still was the mainstay of the League’s activities with the first Oshwal Youth Festival incorporating sports, educational activities culture & entertainment being inaugurated in Easter 1979. This massive annual event has now dubbed the ‘Oshwal Games’ has more or less annually been hosted on rotation basis by various Oshwal communities (Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru & Eldoret) every Easter, attracting participation from as far afield as India, USA, UK & South Africa. More than 20 different sports/games are competed against. The 2003 Games served as the League’s Platinum celebrations.
- Debates, painting competitions, hobbies exhibitions, art/craft bazaars, baby health shows, quiz contests, treasure hunts, film shows, medical / professional lectures, children’s parties have all been popular activities in the 1980s. The nature and scope of the League’s activities is vast and endless. Some events though managed entirely on a voluntary basis have been so professionally and meticulously organized as to leave the participants and community at large dumbstruck.
- Newsletters have been very creatively published with the contents being at par with any popular magazine.
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