My

Story

Disney

“My name is Disney, I come from an indigenous community called Chijurephan – in English it means ‘a place by the rivers’. When I was little armed groups drove us out of our homeland, so we became internally displaced and had to look for shelters. But in this community, since we are indigenous, we have a way to survive around each other.

I saw the kids, suffering from the harsh living conditions. Through football I started to help them to learn and have fun. So, I take little sticks and the kids dribble around them because we don’t have equipment like cones. When they play, they feel better.

In the beginning of my activities, I did not get much support from my community, because I am a woman. They say ‘What are you doing playing football if you are a woman? You should be doing something else like cleaning the house or taking care of the kids. That’s for men, playing football’. I reply, ‘it’s my life, it’s my will, and I will do whatever I want with my life and my time’. Despite the negative reactions of my community, what keeps me motivated to continue coaching is to keep the kids away from the armed groups since they often also recruit the girls and boys. So, I try to keep them part of something else.

My dream is to go to university and to study physical education to gain more knowledge about how to coach children. I was once enrolled but unfortunately, I didn’t have the resources to continue. However, the Young Coach Education has given me a lot of knowledge and resources to continue coaching. Now, I also get more recognition from my community and was already able to recruit five more coaches.

When I was selected to take part in the education, it caught me by complete surprise. I was doing the coaching activities on my own, not knowing exactly how to. When I received the call and heard I was selected I was like ‘oh my god, I was waiting for something like this!’ This course has empowered me to do it even better and that I have more to go on. Especially working with people from other cultures helps me to become a better leader, not only for the community that I am with but all the communities that are surrounding me.”