My name is Esther Kide and I am South Sudanese. Until recently, I lived at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Uganda.
It is at the settlement where I learned how to play soccer and fight negative stereotypes about women and girls. The sports program has been an amazing place for making friends with people from other groups and tribes. The settlement hosted people from different tribes that were hostile at home and before WPDI arrived, we saw that as a bad thing. We did not speak to each other and, sometimes, there were fights.
But, with the Peace Through Sports program, I started meeting with girls from other tribes and we came to know each other and became friends. This changed my perspective. I learned that I must be tolerant and open to others. I also learned to believe in myself. Thanks to WPDI, I gained knowledge and skills like how to dribble, how to score, and I also learned how to behave with others on my team. I practiced hard and, thanks to my skills, was noticed and became captain of WPDI’s female football team; last year, I was asked to join South Sudan’s Female Soccer Team as a striker.
Since I joined the national team, I have scored nearly 80 goals and have been able to travel internationally for matches. I have also been able to have an impact by confronting the belief that women and girls cannot play football and support their families. This is simply not true: There are many women who are able to play soccer and also support their families, in many countries.
I want to thank WPDI for training me while I lived as a refugee at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. They helped empower me not only to play soccer but to also support women and girls. This has transformed my life, and, now, I want to help other young people find sports and create a better world for the generations to come.
WPDI’s Peace Through Sports program at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement aims to help promote peace and reconciliation by harnessing the universal appeal of sports. In a setting where so many people stem from different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, sports is often one of the only things that crosses divides. When settlement residents participate in WPDI-sponsored sporting activities, they learn to respect the dignity of their opponents, the values of teamwork and tolerance, and the importance of rules and regulations.
