Another day, another football project. This morning we visited the Uganda Youth Soccer Academy which is run by our good friend Ivan Kakembo. The Academy is in the heart of Kampala and is open for local kids from the slum areas and runs every Saturday morning and Wednesday evening. The Academy is a shining example of what can be achieved with limited funds. The coaches are very professional and know exactly what they are doing, the kids are disciplined and eager to play and Ivan oversees the whole project superbly. It is great to hear that Ivan has recently been appointed Vice-President for youth soccer for the whole of Uganda - if he does a good a job as he has done with his own project it won't be long before we are seeing Uganda in the African Cup of Nations! While there we took part of the session and donated some kits which had been supplied by one of our UK partners, Kits4Causes.
After that we then visited another slum area where we worked with Wilbur Simpejja, a dedicated young coach who is working with very limited resources. Highlight of the day was donating a kit to his team. Previously they had been playing in white vests as it was the only matching shirts they had. Seeing the pride on the kids faces as they pulled on a proper football kit for the first time was amazing. We then held a tournament between three kids teams and saw how they could play. The level of talent on display was pretty incredible - there were at least a couple of players on each team who could genuinely walk into any top flight youth team. One young guy in particular called Paddy (yep, you read it correctly) is a real prospect - we will be watching his career with interest!
We are over half-way through our trip now and I think it's fair to say that tiredness is starting to set in slightly, apart from Jamie who seems to be super-charged! Prayer for the following would be appreciated:
- a restful day tomorrow
- good health for the team
After that we then visited another slum area where we worked with Wilbur Simpejja, a dedicated young coach who is working with very limited resources. Highlight of the day was donating a kit to his team. Previously they had been playing in white vests as it was the only matching shirts they had. Seeing the pride on the kids faces as they pulled on a proper football kit for the first time was amazing. We then held a tournament between three kids teams and saw how they could play. The level of talent on display was pretty incredible - there were at least a couple of players on each team who could genuinely walk into any top flight youth team. One young guy in particular called Paddy (yep, you read it correctly) is a real prospect - we will be watching his career with interest!
We are over half-way through our trip now and I think it's fair to say that tiredness is starting to set in slightly, apart from Jamie who seems to be super-charged! Prayer for the following would be appreciated:
- a restful day tomorrow
- good health for the team
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| Wilber and his team with their new kit |
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