Editor,

RE: Sports federations urged to focus on youth development (The New Times, April 25).

With a big percentage of youthful population, Rwanda should heavily invest in sports, from the village level to national level.

We may be targeting having academies to compete regionally or globally, that is important, but what is more fundamental is to have a generation that values and understands the importance of sports/exercising.

Rwanda needs to make sure that at least every village has sports grounds of all types, from football and tennis to volleyball and basketball.

Also, each school should be having sports facilities that every evening you see people gathering either for exercising or watching sports games. And, infrastructures like new roads should reserve lanes for cycling and jogging.

This will result into a nation with a healthier workforce and sports appetite. Furthermore, if sports behavior becomes a norm, the youth would be saved from wasting their lives away binge drinking, abusing drugs and engaging in all kinds of evil acts.

Yulian