As tennis Cambodia’s inaugural series of national junior tournaments comes to its conclusion this month, former Tennis Australia high-performance coach Daniel Buberis has pledged to get behind the development of the sport in one of the most remote parts of the country.

More importantly, through his Project 6 Foundation, Buberis is determined to make a difference to the lives of children who after a tough start to life are finding hope and opportunity through sport – a path that he knows well himself.

Having connected with a volunteer social worker from Battambang during a tennis summit he was part of in Kep, in November last year, Buberis followed up by visiting the October edition of the Decathlon Junior series in Siem Reap this year – the first time it had travelled outside Phnom Penh.

What he found at the three-day tournament, hosted at the ICF Campus – who maintain several clay courts – was what he hopes will be the start of a long-term, grassroots partnership with the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, who brought 11 of their young residents, aged 8-16, to compete.

“Most of the children at the mission come from very poor families, some without parents,” explained Buberis, who was himself adopted to Australia from the Philippines as a five-year-old.

“In some instances, children are temporarily left to fend for themselves when their parents go to look for work in Thailand, but for some, they are simply abandoned. Without the mission they would be homeless.”

As part of the work of Project 6, a charity he registered officially at the end of last year, aside from donating time and equipment in these areas, Buberis hopes to raise standards by employing a network of coaches to teach tennis and other sports at clinics on a semi-regular basis.

“Being exposed to local competitions like this one encourages children to be organised, set goals and accelerates their interpersonal growth,” he says. “Employing properly trained coaches brings this to another level.”

It’s a model he’s already starting to roll out in the Philippines, where he’s working with his former orphanage in Quezon City, and several schools in some of the country’s most impoverished areas, including a notorious trash pile outside Manila dubbed ‘Smokey Mountain’.

Home to at least 400 families who scavenge through its waste to make a living, for these children, being coached by an outsider in a sport they barely know is a welcome respite from their daily routine.

While in Siem Reap, Buberis found an ally for his work in another foreigner, Alvaro Pita Sanchez, a Spanish volunteer from Madrid who has been living at the Battambang mission for the past 12 months.

He made the 350km round-trip with them to Siem Reap to let them take part in what was for most, their first competitive games.

For one of the older boys, 16-year-old Sampun Rouert, whose father abandoned him along with his five brothers and sisters just over 10 years ago, Alvaro says tennis has given him a sense of leadership at an important time in his life.

“If you ask the boys and girls who is their coach, they will say ‘Sampun’,” he says.

“Because of his promise, the children have begun to look up to him, and he has taken to the role sensitively and seriously. It’s amazing to see, and it’s because of these competitions.”

As it stands, since October, funds have run low for non-essential trips like these, but in the middle of this month – from Friday to Monday – Sampun and two of the other children from the mission will attend a coaching clinic in Phnom Penh.

It’s exactly the type of thing Buberis will look to implement more regularly through the support of sponsors and his own fundraising efforts.

“I am personally committed to making this happen,” says the former strength and conditioning coach of Australia’s best professional men’s players.

“We are here to develop our relationship with the mission and will continue to follow up.

“This is not just about tennis either, but about providing hope and opportunity. I am living proof that the confidence and discipline gained from taking part in coaching and physical education activities can change the destiny of a person’s life. These children deserve the chance to do the same.”

To find out more about Project 6 Foundation and Daniel himself, follow his journey at www.p6f.org or @projectsixfoundation. To find out more about Tennis Cambodia’s Decathlon Junior tennis series, go to facebook.com/decathlon-tennis-series-of-cambodia.

Jon Aspin