Nile Óg Cusacks are a beacon of inclusivity in Uganda

By John Harrington

Africa’s newest GAA club, Nile Óg Cusacks in Uganda, are already a powerful testament to the Association’s manifesto, ‘Where We All Belong’.

Founded in July by Clare native John Conroy, the club has brought Gaelic football and Irish dancing to Walukubu West Primary School in Jinja near the source of the Nile in the east of the Country.

Inclusivity was always top of the club’s agenda, which is in their first year Nile Óg Cusacks have focused on coaching a classroom of 28 deaf children in the school.

Conroy, who has done charitable works in Ugdanda since 2009, and seven other volunteers from Clare travelled to Jinja for six weeks in the summer and quickly got the club up and running from a standing start thanks to the enthusiasm of all involved.

“When I spoke to the school principal, Ziyadi, and the sign language teacher, Faridah, I immediately got a massive buy-in,” Conroy told GAA.ie.

“So I said, right, we'll give this a go and we went out every evening then from about three until half four and also on Saturday mornings.

“The Irish ambassador Kevin Colgan and his wife Catherine came out and officially launched the club at the end of July which was huge. It was the first time an ambassador came to any of the schools in the Jinja area and that gave us a great status and a great kick-off.

“We identified a coach to help us, a local guy named Meddy who was interested in sports, and we upskilled him. We had thought communication might be a challenge but it wasn’t because Faridah was able to translate everything for us and I’m learning the sign language as I go along too.

“The good thing for the kids is that this is the first time they've ever been involved in a group sporting environment.

“It's difficult being a special needs child in an under-developed country like Uganda because a lot of people don't really see them as having a role in society.

“There’s no role, no facilities, and sometimes it's seen as a shame on the family to have a special needs child and the husband or partner might leave because there's a child like that in the family. And then also as well they have the challenge of people believing the family is cursed or has bad spirits.”

Conroy and his fellow volunteers raised nearly €60,000 for a local hospice, renovated a classroom, and also brought over enough gear to get the club up and running.

“What we did was put out a big plea for football boots and tops and shorts,” says Conroy. “So each child now has got a pair of football boots, a pair of shorts, a pair of socks, and a jersey and a top each.

“Football boots are massive because kids there don't have shoes never mind football boots, they're really expensive. So the kids are now presented like any child in the western world which is only proper and right.

“It’s been great for the self-development of the kids. I've noticed a huge change in the demeanour of some of them since we've gone in. They're feeling good about themselves.

“Even a simple thing like having all the gear on, they look fantastic. For a lot of the kids the clothes they wear wouldn't be the best, but now they have this new shiny gear and they look so proud and so happy.

“That was the idea of starting with the special needs kids, we wanted to help them feel happy and important. They just love and enjoy the game. They devote themselves to it and they value it because they have nothing else. THey have no phones or other sport. It's the one thing they have and they just love it.”

Conroy quickly discovered that the children he coached didn’t just have a huge enthusiasm for Gaelic football, but an innate ability to play it too.

“Because of the whole environment they're living in, they walk to school, and it could be an hour and a half or two hour walk to school,” says Conroy. “A lot of them tend to live in small little farm holdings so they're actively working every evening.

“They're bringing water from the well, they're digging, they're hoeing, they're preparing crops, they're washing clothes. Back in Ireland we have to do S&C with kids to develop their strength but these kids are doing this naturally because of the work they do every day.

“So, then it's just a matter of developing their ball skills because they're able to jump, they're able to turn, they're able to twist, they can shoulder, they can take knocks because they're already strong. They’re conditioned already so it's just a matter of bringing in the skills then from there and they’ve picked those up very quickly.

“They have great natural ability and everything you say to do they do it. There are no distractions.”

The plan is to roll our Gaelic football and Irish dancing to more and more mainstream classes in the school when they return from their holidays, and Conroy hopes the model he has established will be a sustainable one that will lead to more and more children playing Gaelic games.

“Like anything you start from scratch the initial period is difficult, but once you get a structure in place it just takes off from there,” says Conroy.

“We're looking at this as a long-term thing. It's not just we're going in there for the summer, this will be progressed more and more.

“We've set up a WhatsApp group for the coaches so every week I guide the coaches and the teacher in terms of the skills and then they put up texts of their session back to me and I then work on improving that.

“Funding would be the big thing. We definitely need funding for the game grow. We've produced in our own club a nice little template on how it could be rolled out to the other communities.

“I've had I don't know how many calls from other communities and schools to go there and bring the game in.

“It would be great if we could get a sponsor and the dream would be that we could fund a full-time coordinator to go around to schools and train more and more coaches. I’d have no doubt that you’d have thousands and thousands playing the games if we got something like that going.

“I really do believe there's a major market in the African continent to grow Gaelic games but it will depend on funding and it will need support, there's no doubt about it.

“We have a really good gateway to get into a continent where there's a massive population and little other competition in terms of team sport and where the schools would welcome us with open arms.”

Whatever the future might bring, Nile Óg Cusacks are off to a great start in their very first year of existence.

They’ve made an appreciable difference to the lives of the young children involved by giving them the opportunity to play Gaelic games, and gotten great goodwill from the local community in return.

“I asked the kids and the principal just to bring me and the kids to the homes of their families for a day and it was just great to see the joy and the happiness that they have,” says Conroy.

“They're so proud wearing the boots and wearing the gear and just telling the parents all about the football.

“That's the big thing, really. Just to see how happy they are. And then obviously if they're happy in their sporting environment then they're going to bring joy into their classroom as well. So it's a winner all round."