I grew up in remote villages in Sierra Leone, West Africa, as an orphan with limited access to schooling until I was adopted at age 14 by an education-minded mother in San Francisco. I can only understand in retrospect that growing up and surviving without parents until the age of 14 in Sierra Leone was an enormous challenge. I did not have an out-of-the-ordinary life in Sierra Leone; there were many orphans my age after the Civil War. Various aunties and community members helped me sometimes, but other times, I had to fend for myself. It was always my dream to change my life and the lives of the people around me.

Growing up in Sierra Leone and playing soccer with my friends has always given me a sense of release from everyday pains and difficulties we face. Despite the lack of shoes, uniforms, equipment and even good soccer balls, we play all the time everywhere. 

Six months ago, I traveled back to Sierra Leone-West Africa, after being away for almost five years.  When I visited my village in Sierra Leone, there was an outpouring of gratitude from all the soccer boys who had received two soccer balls that I had sent for them 2 years prior with my Uncle Luseni. Their overwhelming gratitude inspired me to buy a few more soccer balls for this village and another village in which I had lived. 

One of my Kiski High School teachers organized a donation of 10 pairs of old soccer shoes, a highly coveted prize for the boys who were the lucky recipients. I understood their giddy excitement because soccer shoes were always out-of-reach for me and my friends in the villages.

Then I mentioned this story to one of my mom's friends who is a soccer mom in Pittsburgh, PA. She offered to do a collection of old soccer shoes and balls from her kid's soccer league. My mom and I stood in amazement when we came back to Pittsburgh after a month and found half our garage covered with soccer items. Our friends in San Francisco have also started a collection for used men's soccer shoes, which are most in demand for the big-footed teenage boys in Sierra Leone.

I am now faced with an amazing opportunity to really help the two villages in which I grew up, through soccer. Soccer is not just a fun street game for kids, but also mobilizing community opportunity with significant economic impact. Soccer leagues keep kids off the streets and teach discipline, teamwork and developing one's mind and body. Teams with good equipment hold tournaments that bring villages together for days at a time. Musicians are hired, people sell food and goods. Leaders use these events to help spread messages about health and education. 

I have started this GoFundMe page for 2 reasons:

1.) to deliver the current trove soccer items to my two villages in Sierra Leone

 2.) to use that beginning as a foundation to start a non-profit to expand my effort to give back to Sierra Leone. The soccer project is just the beginning of a non-profit we are trying to build. My mom and I are working on two other Sierra Leone projects related to education (technology-based learning tools) and health (prosthetic for war-wounded amputees). We want to create a non-profit organization that will help sustain this project in the long run. 

So what do we need? What will we do with it?

My goal is to raise $10,000 to immediately ship the trove of soccer items to these two villages by the end of the summer and to travel there to distribute the items, organize a soccer league, and also search for the best place to start piloting for the education and health project in Sierra Leone.

Thank you for your donation.