On assignment for Photographers Without Borders, Mar 2019

The children in Walukuba, slums outside of Jinja, Uganda, don't have many options when it comes to education or other opportunities for personal enrichment. The government provides very little - if any - assistance. Single mothers work whatever jobs they can take and still barely make enough money to feed their family, let alone pay excessive school tuition costs. While they're working, the children are left unsupervised and without positive role models.

X-SUBA Sport4Development Uganda is a nonprofit started by one of Walukuba's rare college graduates, who later came back to help his community through sport and volunteer education. The learning center provides basic English, math, computer, and critical thinking lessons for children unable to afford school tuition. Some of these children really stand out, and they have the opportunity to receive a scholarship to attend proper, higher education.

In addition to these education programs, organized sports are the backbone of X-SUBA's mission. Coaches visit local schools to organize netball, soccer, and basketball games because the schools themselves cannot afford physical education programs. Then on the weekends, the children in the community gather for a few hours of organized sports in which the coaches mix in life skills such as personal hygiene, abstinence, and financial responsibility.