My

Story

Jacqueline

“I grew up in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. I lived with my parents and brothers, with me being the youngest of the family. As I grew up living with boys, I played with them at their games, mostly playing football. We often played on the street with other children with a ball we made ourselves. Due to my family being threatened during the war in the DRC, we fled to Rwanda in search of safety.

My days are full of joy as in the morning children come to my home to find me so that I will go and train them. When I found out that I was to become a coach after doing this education programme I was very happy as I have always loved sport and seeing children playing. What I like most about being a coach is the possibility to socialise with children, to see them play and being happy during my training sessions.

I’m very proud of being a woman who is married and who has other responsibilities as a woman but also that I can become a coach and everyone in my community knows that I’m a coach and I train the children. I feel so proud that people see me as someone important in the community. I am especially proud of being a female coach amongst so many male Young Coaches in this education programme.

For me, football is the best sport as it helps the children to become more disciplined and it teaches them to be well behaved. I am able to teach children these life skills through the football activities I do with them.

I attended this training as I really love football and I feel very committed to the education programme and my role as a coach in my community. I came to the first module, returned for the second and I have now completed the third module so this shows my commitment and I feel especially proud to have completed all 3 modules.

I’m planning to go back to the camp and keep practicing everything which I have learned during this education programme. I want to make almost all of the children love football as much as I do. I want to pass on my passion for football to them. Now that I have got all of these new skills, I can now show these skills to the children I train.”