by SSC posted 07/06/2011
Bagamoyo Sisters’ Soccer Team
The Simsbury Soccer Club is excited to announce a partnership with the Bagamoyo Sisters’ Soccer Team in Tanzania. Laura Saucier is currently in Tanzania and just sent us the following update (towards the bottom are some things you can do to help).
The team is doing well. Their skills have improved DRASTICALLY since I last saw them. They could certainly hold their own in CT high school soccer league.
Apparently, people from all over this part of Tanzania know about the Bagamoyo Sisters. Three of our girls were on Tanzania's women's national team. And last Saturday I was lucky enough to go to the Tanzanian championship game for girl's secondary school soccer (The winner is the Tanzanian champion and goes to Kenya to compete for the East African championship.) In the final match, we had a total of 12 Bagamoyo Sisters players! Two on the losing team and ten on the winning team. Incredible!
And, the vast majority of those girls could not even afford to go to school if it wasn't for soccer. Their secondary school fees (including mattresses and books) are about $1,000 per year. But now Tanzania has scholarships for female soccer players. So, they only have to pay 1/4 of the fees. Still, many cannot pay $250/year. So, the Bagamoyo Sister's assistant coach has started a motorcyle driving business to make money to send our girls to school.
It truly is like one big family looking out for one another. Several of our girls are orphans, and the team has to pay for their hospital bills if they get sick, food if they cannot come up with rice money on any given week, etc.
We have a very exciting new development! Since most of our girls are now in secondary school and away most of the year, we are starting another team with younger girls. We have tryouts at each of Bagamoyo's primary schools in the beginning of July. We will form a young team (ages 7-12) and introduce them to soccer at a young age. It should be great! I am going to have to find them uniforms and cleats though.
Here are some of the things Laura wants to try to do for the Bagamoyo Sisters:
1. Uniforms and cleats for the new team.
· Plus pinnies, cones
· 2 ref shirts, 2 flags, 2 whistles, and a stop watch
A collection bin will be placed at Vincent’s.
2. Find sponsors for the girls on the team who otherwise may not be able to continue their soccer and studies. There are nine players (about half of whom are orphaned) who I need to find sponsors for. The total school fees come to about $1,200/year. (This includes food, room and board, tuition, etc.) However, all the girls have soccer scholarships to secondary school, and therefore only need to pay about $275/year. This sum is still too big for these nine girls. The Bagamoyo Sisters coaches, players, and managers have been chipping in to help keep these nine girls in school. But, money is running low and seven of the players have 3 years of classes left, and two of the players have 2 years left.
I asked all nine players to write personal histories and I will also take their pictures. Hopefully this will help me find sponsors for them in the United States.
If your team wants to sponsor one of the girls, please let Tom Hayden know (
).
If you want to make a donation to help one of the girls, please make your checks payable to the Simsbury Soccer Club and send them to Pamela Newell at 37 Longview Drive, Simsbury, CT 06070. Please be sure to indicate it is for the Bagamoyo Sisters’ Soccer Team
3. Connect them with Simsbury pen pals. If you want to be a pen pal, please let me know Tom Hayden know (
).
I bought 18 balls on Saturday, one for each of the players on the current team. They will all receive the balls today. I am so excited! Three girls went with me to the capital city to buy the balls. Even though the city is only about two hours away by bus, it was the first time they've been. We had a great lunch and got ice cream afterword. They had a ton of fun.
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