Source: The Monitor
Kampala — Women's Day was quite a special one for many females in the fabric of Ugandan sport.
They turned out in big numbers to celebrate at the 'Women in Sport' workshop organized by the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) at Imperial Royale Hotel yesterday.
"After such an occasion, we are taking women to the next level of leadership in sport," head of UOC Women in Sport Commission, Annet Nakamya, told Daily Monitor. The workshop followed a women's sports administration course at Mengo Secondary School over the weekend aimed at increasing the number of females working across the various sports organisations in the country.
"We have started a process that is going to be quantifiable in the years to come. A great deal of change is in offing for women in Ugandan sport," Nakamya said.
With a clear motive to train, mentor and grow female leaders in sports, a number of key facilitators spoke to the 140 particpnats, including a few men, from different disciplines like football, volleyball, rugby, motocross, athletics, netball and cricket.
Among those was Dorcus Inzikuru, the first female 3000m steeplechase world champion. She was the chief speaker at the day-long event.
"I come from Arua and they wanted us to join the army but I became an athlete," a smiling Inzikuru said amid ecstasy from the audience comprising active sports ladies, coaches and officials. "With programmes like this and support from government, women can take the front seats in sports." Like Inzikuru, many others shared their inspirational career stories like football coach Hadijah Namuyanja a.k.a Lady Mourinho, Dr Maggie Kigozi, among others. Instead of staying home to do house chores, the ladies watched several video clips of young Ugandan girls like seven-year-old Isabella Blick (motocross) and ten-year-old Samia Ayikoru (rugby) speak of their dreams in sport.
"When I retire from sports, I want to become a sports medicine doctor," Ayikoru said in the video. Isabella said as the audience watched attentively:"I want to become the African champion in the future."
Guarding such dreams has been tedious in recent times. But following some good ground work, Nakamya and company seemed to have found a remedy. They drafted a white paper which will go a long way in helping women to gain ground in sports administration. The white paper was launched by guests; French Ambassador to Uganda, Sophie Makame and British High Commissioner, Alison Blackburne. "We engaged almost all stakeholders in sport including sportsmen and technical officials to analyse why women are few in sports leadership positions and how to better the situation in this policy document," Nakamya explained.
She Cranes team manager Jocelyn Uchanda was among the many left satisfied by the workshop.
"All speakers have emphasized women not to wait for men to lead us and we have got the passion to do it in this holistic discipline," Uchanda, who led the She Cranes to the Netball World Cup last year, said.
Take front seat
During the workshop, women were encouraged to compete for sports administrative posts with men.