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Friday, August 1, 2008
Soccer Without Borders
Raleigh Durham, NC
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High Schools Team Up to make Soccer Dreams Come True
Lots of people in Africa don’t have much; some have nothing, and most of the struggle is due to war.
In Gulu, Uganda, some Wake County schools are trying to make a difference.
Civil war has tormented Uganda, particularly the northern part of the country where children have been abducted from their homes and used a child soldiers. This includes children from the city of Gulu.
The rebel group responsible for the abductions, known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), fled the country into the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Sudan, but they left behind innocent civilians with even less than what they started with.
The civilians were placed into containment camps, unable to leave to tend to farmland, and unable to live normal lives.
In July 2006, Garner High School science teacher Chris Waluk traveled to Uganda where he met several people, one of whom was a soccer coach for the Northern City Football Club. Waluk asked Coach Denis what he could do to help the Northern City Football Club.
“Through the course of several conversations, we began to see what needs he had that I could be able to help out with,” Waluk said.
When Waluk returned home to Garner, he got started, lining up schools to help get equipment for the National City Football Club.
Green Hope and Leesville Road High Schools donated used soccer jerseys. Other schools donated cleats, soccer balls, socks, and shin guards. By the time Waluk and four of his friends were ready to return to Uganda in July 2007, he had a 70 pound bag of soccer equipment to carry with him.
“The response was incredible,” Waluk said. “The coaches decided that rather than allow the players to receive these gifts for free, they would all participate in a community service project. I had the honor of joining them in this project, as we re-sodded the playing field at Peche Stadium in Gulu.”
The team wearing Green Hope jerseys won the district championship, and the team that wore the Leesville Road jerseys called themselves “the Pride,” just like Leesville Road.
After receiving such a warm response, Waluk decided he wanted to try it again.
No local contributions were received this year, but Waluk said he received a large donation from Passback.org, and because Uganda has a 100 percent import tax, he was looking for people to carry the equipment to Uganda to minimize cost.
One of those travelers was Marie Hamm, a member of Green Hope’s Class of 2007.
Hamm returned to Cary in May after a seven-month internship with Invisible Children, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the conditions in Uganda. Hamm planned to travel to Uganda for more than three weeks in July and August, and she volunteered to take some soccer equipment with her.
Plans to take the equipment to Gulu were canceled, at least temporarily, after word that the LRA was regrouping and may return to northern Uganda.
"If [the LRA] came back to northern Uganda, they wouldn't designate Westerner from Acholi," Hamm said. "It could be a dangerous situation."
The Acholi is an ethnic group from Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan.
Hamm’s fear is that the group she is with could be harmed in some way if the LRA returns.
In addition to delivering the soccer equipment, Hamm was expecting to work at a school for former child soldiers in Gulu. The school uses music and art therapy to return the children back to a normal life in the Ugandan society.
Hamm was concerned that the LRA may target the school to take back the child soldiers if they returned to the country, although no specific threats have been made.
In April, Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, refused to sign the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the Government of Uganda (GoU). The following month, Kony did not show up for a meeting with religious and community leaders in northern Uganda.
By refusing to show, questions are raised about Kony’s commitment to peace, and many doubt that Kony is ready to fully disarm.
According to Invisible Children, the Uganda military has intelligence suggesting that the LRA is regaining strength and numbers in preparation for a new attack. The military has also said that the LRA has split into smaller groups and crossed the Nile River.
One of Hamm’s goals in traveling to Uganda was to help the kids of Gulu get some sort of normalcy in their lives, specifically by making it easier to play the most popular sport in the world – soccer.
Hamm said that there were eight pairs of shoes, a full set of jerseys, socks, cones, shin guards, and other equipment. Although she didn't know exactly when the soccer equipment would go to Uganda, she said she thought it would be within the next year. That, of course, depends on the conditions on the ground in northern Uganda.
The equipment is packed away in a “very big duffle bag like the army uses,” according to Hamm. “It’s waiting for someone to take it,” she added.
As for the United States’ stance on Uganda, the State Department will support a Uganda military strike on the LRA, but they make it clear that they would like to see a peaceful resolution.
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