update pearl city fc

Preamble Pearl City Soccer Academy and football club started in 2010 as a response to the needs of a hurting people who were recovering from the negative effects of war, poverty and hopelessness caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army Rebels for over two decades. The club participates in football as a major sport with the youths in the community. These youths are exposed to messages on peace, human rights, education, reconciliation, etc hence leading to community transformation. The vision of Pearl City is to empower today’s youths to become committed to the game of football and rise to first class professionals. The mission is transforming local communities through sports for mentorship and discipleship. Our values are Respect, Integrity, Fair play, Accountability, Hard work, and professionalism We would like to report to you what we have done in the past three months and also what we intend to do in the near future: • Airtel Rising Stars 16 teams participated in a knock out tournament. Pearl City triumphed over two teams to qualify for the semi-finals but was unsuccessful to make it beyond citing maltipractices in the officiation of game. Pearl City was the only team that participated in the whole of Acholi Sub-region against 15 teams from the Lango region. Present were Child Restoration Outreach, Young Lira United FC, Young Boroboro FC, Rising stars Oyam, Lira fielded 8 teams as the hosting district and the rest of the districts shared each presenting single teams. Eminent also was the girls’ soccer teams which was called for by the organizers Airtel for every district team to bring one girls team too. However not all the districts managed to take the girls as the cost of maintenance was overwhelming to handle two teams. The competitions were organized by Airtel Uganda one of the leading telecommunication companies active in Uganda in conjunction with Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) at Uganda Technical College (UTC) Lira. Our participation in the Airtel Rising Star competition is one of the ways to achieve our goal as it exposed these youths to other clubs and enabled them to shine. I am glad to report that in the competition three of our players were chosen to participate in the national competition slated to begin this September. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, hence we know our journey has started and believe will struggle till we accomplish our goal of molding professionals. Pearl city Airtel Rising Stars squad 2012 • Obua and Otti cup Obua and Otti trophy commenced on the 30th of June, and 1st July was the kick off, a competition that was organized by FUFA and was supposed to attract district clubs from Mid-north i.e. Acholi and Lango regions. This competition is a remembrance of the key persons who have contributed immensely to soccer in Uganda, Obua David and Vincent Otti who died few years ago. The winners were supposed to take home a trophy and 2 million Uganda shillings for the first and 1.5 million for the second and 1 million for third by the courtesy of FUFA and to be awarded by Lawrence Mulindwa the FUFA Chief. Pader as a district participated together with nine other teams for other districts. They included, Otuke, Kole, Lira, Pader, Amolator, Apac, Gulu, Oyam and Alebtong. Pearl City as club fielded six players in the district team where as Pader town council fielded eleven players from different clubs with town council perimeters. This was a tight competition but we expected the boys to deliver. As the district coach, I was not able to accompany the team to Lira as I had tight schedules with office work but was able to send my assistant coach and the FUFA delegate and other persons to represent. We hope this tournament will turn into an annual one and have our players participate for exposure and talent development. David Otti and Vincent Obua (R.I.P) Pearl City Squad June-July Mid-North championship at Uganda Technical Lira However though we have exhibited great success in some of our games and failed in some others, we still have many challenges as club that need intervention. The first challenge is lack of financial support from the district. The district argues that there is no budget for sports in their planning unit. However as the district coach, I have forwarded this concern to the district through the Secretary of fiancé and a budget has been made and hope next year they will cooperate. This cause has led us to seek assistance from development partners and well wishers of which some positively responded. We appeal to every body to come and support us and plans are there to have a special fundraising account for club separate from organization. The availability of training equipments such as soccer cleats, boots as you may call them. The state of our stadiums is appalling, the ground lacks grass and whenever it rains or when it shines a lot, the wear and tare of the boots are too much. The duration is six months if played with reservation, hence many of the players’ cleats are worn out and need new ones. We call upon the sports fraternity, sponsors, promoters, manufacturers of cleats such as adidas, puma, etc to help give back to the poor communities The third need is soccer balls, Pearl City soccer academy is growing steadily, and sincerely speaking we are supporting three teams in three towns and hope to spread to other towns as it is compatible with our organization goals and objectives. We have given out several balls to these clubs and many of which have been donated to us by friends. There also you can partner with us by donating to our club to support our work with the youths. We are continually requesting for partners to provide us with uniforms. Since we also help other teams in the towns, we would like to share with those who lack. Important to note is the fact that our current uniforms need disposal since they have been used a lot and also some are missing. Last but not least is exchange of players from other teams, we hope one day as a club, players across continents would desire to join us this will boost our talent . We are calling for volunteers with coaching skills in football for both girls and boys. If you read this update and you feel you are one, or know some one with such skills please feel free to contact me on www.kingdompearl.org We have received volunteers in the past and they have been a big resource to our training session though they have stayed for short while but hope to have long term volunteers. Also we are calling for passport volunteers with Real Life to visit us and work in our soccer programs and other projects. Our address talks a lot about us. Sign Post Kingdom Pearl Uganda. Mother organization of Pearl City FC Training sessions. The club trains daily starting from Monday to Saturday. All the sessions commence at 5pm so as to allow the school going youths to participate as well since majority are day scholars. The players have the rules that guide their training and try their best to abide to them with the guidance from the coaches. Training for the friendlies with Victoria University club, a club that has qualified to the super league is on, and the MTN under 18 tournaments slated to take place in August this year. Our training this year has been affected by showers in evening hours and this promotes absenteeism. The other hindrance has been lack of jobs for some of the players who are none schooling. These youths instead of coming for training either they would be playing cards or have moved to other places in search of work. Hence as a solution, there is need to create some income generating activities (IGA’S) to provide employments and also to entice them to develop their sports abilities. Visiting volunteer conducting physicals with the team at our stadium Website reconstruction and blog We would like to apologize to the public and all those who read our updates and view the Kingdom Pearl Uganda website, which is apparently not available. We encourage viewers to leave a comment in response to this update for clarity. For more information on this you may contact me, or Jeffrey Wickham who is the site designer to answer your queries. My email address is kingdompearlsmin@gmail.com or +256-756-720-308 Cell phone or visit us on twitter, twitter@ kingdom pearls, or Godwin Kalinte on facebook. I wanted to bring it to your attention that we are planning to organize the website by including the kingdompearlsmin blog and also to create .another blog for the soccer academy, twitter account, face book. The aim of this is for our viewers to have almost everything on the same page and this will help others to know what we are doing. Volunteers program This month we are expecting a volunteer team from the World Race or Real Life, who will be staying and supporting us in our various projects for one month. It is not the first time, but the third time we are receiving such teams and are honored to partner with them. The volunteers assist in projects like soccer, education, livelihood, working in the office to organize data, mentoring young men and women, witnessing in the churches, visiting the poor in the communities. This month also were privileged to receive two aspiring missionaries from USA, Kayla, and Allana Coxwell from Auburn, Alabama. They came to help with work at Tabitha project. They were working mainly working with the children. It has been a good time to watch them working and our prayer to God is to help them to identify their calling. They have visited our program and seen the youth play soccer and we hope before they go they will have time to speak into their lives. Our volunteer programs purpose is to promote cultural exchange between national and international youths. Through it, youths from different parts of the world come to share experiences, knowledge, challenges and together they work out solutions. It also enables them to appreciate one another’s culture despite of the fact that cultures differ in many ways. Also the nationals pick some good elements from their counterparts hence the reverse is true. Through cultural exchanges connections are built and opportunities for jobs, socialization and others are enhanced hence leading to social and economic development of the country. We are integrating a human rights program to include every one despite their differences. Every one is created uniquely and is a creation of God and ought to enjoy their God given rights with minimal interference. Volunteers enjoying coffee at office while taking off time for reflections Mentorship Pearl City soccer program’s mission is to promote sports for mentorship. Youths from all ways of life are equipped with knowledge, skills to help them succeed in their lives. The community they live in observes a positive change in their lives and hence they can transform others. The youth are exposed to spiritual counseling from experts socially, economically and spiritually from different parts of the world. This shapes their character and enables them to be accountable to the community they live in. The youth are taught from a mentorship curriculum and which takes a year and a half, and certificates are awarded to each of them on completion of the course. Team receiving words of wisdom (mentorship) from Godwin and Okello flanked by on lookers Special thanks! Our special thanks go first to the players who sacrificed their time to come for training whenever we had it. Also to all our supporters, those who financially, morally and spiritually supported these great events, and most importantly to the almighty God. He opened doors for resources to flow in even though my faith was faint, He was there to rescue us and never let us down. Lastly not forgetting my friend Jeffrey Wickham who was and still is the website designer of our organization website. He is also our international promoter.