Getting the ball rolling in an impoverished village in Uganda

When one man set up a football academy in an impoverished village in Uganda, he had no idea it had the potential to keep children in education — and save young girls from arranged marriages. Doreen O’Mahony reports.

Wasawa village near Lugazi in East Africa is like an island but instead of being surrounded by water, it lies at the centre of perennial grasses of sugar cane. The sugar canes are tall, bright and green.

They sway at each side of the dirt, mud road leading to the village. At the heart of the village are a few houses made from red mud bricks. There is little else but some makeshift wooden stalls where women sell vegetables and flatbread known as chapattis.