Sports

Grace Villa maintains a sports field within its walls. The pitch provides a conducive environment in which the girls explore their abilities, exercise their bodies and minds, enjoy the camaraderie of playing in a team with friends and peers and learn healthy competition and responsibility. 

The girls themselves were biased against themselves, until they discovered their abilities on our private field, and as their confidence grew we started playing friendly matches and games outside our walls. They receive training in various sports and games including football, volleyball and netball. Sports has had this power to bring us together, even when we are divided.

We have witnessed it change attitudes and behaviors and shift biases based on religion, tribe and social status. Sports can change hearts. Sports have a way of enabling us to escape and relax from the difficulties we faced in yester years. This is important for our children. And hence our motto: One Team. One Family. One Dream.

We engage the girls in 4 key activities: ·

• Sports
• Team Building
• Civic engagement
• Workshops

Members of each team receive a tuition bursary, books, pens, pencils and sanitary pads to see them through the year. Members of the team meet every Saturday without fail, and during holidays. They are given water, glucose and a hot “Wateeka” meal after each practice.

Our efforts are paying off. Grace Villa Soccer Club has won the Kabale District Youth Football Championship cup for 3 years in a row: 2017 and 2018! Because of this, our girls confidence is growing and they are getting noticed. 5 girls at Creamland were recruited by the Creamland High School based on their soccer talent, and receive 100% school fees bursaries.

We took the winning team on a celebratory road trip to Uganda’s capital city, Kampala. The trip was made possible by friends of Grace Villa who raised the transportation and accommodation fare. Some of the girls had never been in a car before, let alone travel past our Kabale town line. They now got to walk on our Entebbe Airport tarmac, and touch an airplane.

They visited the national newspaper offices and factory to see how newspapers are printed, and were invited into the office and for a photo op with the Managing Director Mr Kabushenga himself. They toured the Parliament, visited the zoo, a beach and a modern mall. The trip was crowned with a training session by professional coaches and a friendly match with Proline Sports Academy at Lugogo Stadium, hosted by Mr Mujib Kasule, founder of the academy.

Our plan is to build a formidable team that will grow to participate in national, regional and even international tournaments using the team as vehicle through which to create exciting opportunities for our team members, as well as mobilize resources to sustain our Grace Villa programs.

We believe that we can ride on the success of our team to mobilize the community and champion community service programs such as sanitation, immunization, and blood donation drives.

Quote

Sports can change hearts. It has a way of enabling us to escape and relax from the difficulties we faced in yester years. This is important for our children. And hence our motto: One Team. One Family. One Dream.

Sponsors of Sports Equipment

Airtel • Soccer Without Borders • KPMG