Humans of Uganda (20)

“I was never the best athlete in my school but I was privileged to play a number of games including soccer, badminton and later rugby for which I developed a passion. In 2011, during my time at Makerere University Business School, a new game called lacrosse was pioneered and introduced in my final year of study. It was the first time it was being played in Africa and we had a dream to make history and play in the 2014 World Lacrosse Championship in USA. For us this was our chance to make history as no African country had yet played this game, and also we had to play with the word's best that had grown up playing the sport. It's dubbed as the fastest sport on two feet.
Though I wasn't able to make the final 18 man team that played at the world cup due to work and family commitments, the experience was life-changing and opened up a whole window of opportunities for us. The passion and love for the game has seen me move on to help grow the game not just locally in Uganda where it's currently not professional and club players are not paid to play--I know of one who doubles as a barber.
Ugandan, being the pioneer lacrosse playing nation in Africa, has seen her play a big brother role in growing and spreading the game on the African continent as we work to get more countries on board so that the game can be played in the Olympics. This has seen me take on a new challenge as the Kenya Lacrosse Head Coach with our target and dream to take the first ever women's team from Africa to play in the lacrosse world cup in Canada come 2019. We believe the exposure is going to be great and open up opportunities for young girls in education through sport. There're now over 20 lacrosse playing schools in Kenya, so I believe it's working out. My experience has taught me that the courses we study in school and university do not determine what our work life will be but shape the paths we take. We should take sport important as you never know one day it might be your calling. Like I tell the over 500 girls I coach, your sex or gender should never determine how things turn out for you, always be confident, set your goal and work towards achieving it."