Handball Player Robin Lorenz Experiences a Moving Year with PLAY HANDBALL and Shows How Sport Creates Community Around the World
By Robin Lorenz, weltwärts volunteer for PLAY HANDBALL in Kenya in partnership with Kultur-Life, Nairobi, April-2025

My name is Robin Lorenz, I’m 19 years old and from the Rheingau region. I played handball for 12 years with TGE Eltville. In the summer of 2024, I completed my Abitur (high school diploma) and then consciously chose to do a voluntary social year abroad. Through the German government’s development volunteer program “weltwärts,” I’ve been working with PLAY HANDBALL in Kenya since September 2024 – a non-profit organization that uses sport, especially handball, as a tool for social development. In Nairobi, I support PLAY HANDBALL Kenya as a volunteer handball coach, helping to build up handball programs for disadvantaged children and youth in Utawala and Mathare.

My Daily Life and Handball Mission in Kenya
I live in Utawala, a suburb of Nairobi. In the mornings, I assist at a local school and in the afternoons I run handball training sessions for children and youth. This has been a completely new experience for me – not just because of cultural differences, but especially due to the often very limited resources. At school, children often have to share books, sometimes there are none, and erasers and sharpeners are passed from class to class. Despite these challenges, the children’s eagerness to learn is enormous.

In the afternoons, I’m on the handball field with my fellow volunteer and good friend Jonas – we run training sessions for the kids, play with them, teach them basic techniques, but above all: values like team spirit, fairness, respect, and perseverance. For many of these children, the training is more than just sport – it’s a space for community and building self-confidence.

Here in Kenya, we don’t play handball in a hall but outdoors – usually on dusty football fields. It works surprisingly well until it rains, when the game quickly turns into a real mud battle. Most days, however, are very sunny. Before each training session, we set up the goals together and mark out the field with cones – improvisation is part of everyday life here.

In the beginning, it wasn’t easy at all: we had just a few bibs, some cones, and about ten handballs – for around 50 children. But I’ve learned that with creativity, flexibility, and lots of enthusiasm, you can achieve a lot, and we’ve been able to create meaningful and fun training sessions. The situation has now improved significantly: thanks to support from the German Bundesliga clubs FRISCH AUF! Göppingen and Füchse Berlin, we now have enough balls and full sets of jerseys to equip all the children. This has not only improved the quality of the training but also greatly strengthened the children’s sense of community.

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Handball in Mathare
Recently, I’ve also been involved once a week in Mathare, one of the largest slums in Nairobi. Together with Newton, our PLAY HANDBALL coach, and Jonas, we’ve launched a new handball initiative there. Currently, we have 25 young men between the ages of 18 and 25 who attend our open training sessions every week. This has been a completely new challenge for me, as I’ve mostly worked with children so far. But the motivation and enthusiasm of the young men is impressive – and the jerseys they now get to wear have given them a whole new sense of self-worth.

The jerseys were donated by my former club TGE Eltville and personally brought to Kenya by Fynn Gärtner from the men’s team. The joy and pride among the players were huge – suddenly they stood together as a team, feeling seen and respected. These jerseys are more than just sports gear – they represent belonging, identity, and new perspectives.

What Handball Means to Me
I played handball for 12 years at TGE Eltville. The sport shaped me – through highs and lows, victories and defeats, but most importantly through what you learn as a team: taking responsibility, growing together, standing up for one another. Passing on these experiences now is a gift.

One of the most beautiful moments so far was a tournament we organized ourselves, made possible through donations. It lasted a whole day, and at the end, every child received a medal – the winning teams even got trophies. I was particularly impressed by the team from the Korogocho slum, who won everything – both the boys’ and the girls’ divisions – despite being physically smaller. Their unstoppable determination, passion, and team spirit were overwhelming. You could truly feel the power of handball – especially for children living in tough conditions.

That’s exactly the goal of our initiative in Mathare. Since we’ve distributed jerseys there, you can feel a new sense of unity and motivation. Seeing that joy every day, experiencing the openness of the people, and sharing their relaxed approach to life – those are probably the biggest reasons why I came to Kenya and why I want to keep coming back.

A Big Thank You
On behalf of PLAY HANDBALL, the young men in Mathare, and myself: thank you, TGE Eltville!
With your jersey donation, you didn’t just put smiles on faces – you created a connection that reaches across continents. The jerseys are much more than equipment; they give the players a sense of being part of a community, a handball family. Thank you!

Robin