Meet Olive
Posted by Uganda - 04/07/2007
Born on August 22, 1979, Olive Mbekaka was raised in Katanga, Uganda's second largest slum, an area largely populated with single mothers and sex workers. Olive did not have a good childhood and her youth life has been characterised by hardship. She is an orphan and when life seemed too difficult Olive took refugee on the street. While on the street her brother introduced her to many of his friends who played football.
Olive learned to play football from these young men and her brother. To her brothers surprise the more she kicked the ball, the more fun she had and the better she got. Today, she believes football is her medicine for stress and she has gained more courage, and made many new friends. In fact, she was recently selected to play on a local women's team that has traveled outside Kampala to play football matches
Since joining Gomo Tong FC she feels her life has changed. She attributes her adaptations to talking with one of GYPAs Social Workers who "has helped her to understand boys even better."
During her free time, she loves watching football, she now dreams of more excellence in football, and her favorite player is Ronaldo.
She has a dream of seeing Gomo Tong FC winning the Homeless World Cup for Uganda and believes that women are capable of helping the team to compete against other teams in the tournament. She wishes all Homeless World Cup players good luck and encourages everyone to work hard towards eliminating poverty.
You can see a photo of Olive in Uganda's photo log.
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