Dennis Lutaaya Believes That Every Player Must Be Educated

My name is Lutaaya John Dennis. I am 16 years old and  was  born  on  the  9th  of  January  1997. I am from Uganda. I was born in Nsambya Hospital. I am from a poor family. I  am a Tennis  player  as  well  as  a  pupil  of  Malezi  School. I train  at  Sadili  Oval. My  parents  work in the Industrial  Area  of  Kampala whenever they can get jobs. My  father  works  as  a  carpenter  and  my  mother is a cook.
I  love  and  treasure  my  education  because  it  will  make  me  who  I  aspire  to  be  someday - a  mechanical  engineer.  I  also  love  Tennis  because  it  helped  me  to  come  to  Sadili, a  place  where  I  can  improve  my  game. This  happened  when, Dr. Liz Odera came to my  club  in  Uganda,  and she  coached  over  20  of  us  free of charge and  chose  two of us  to join Sadili's players.  This happened in  2009 when  I  was  12  years  old. I was really scared that I would not be picked, because I wasn’t the best, but when my name was called out, I became overjoyed because I knew that this was my one big chance in life. When I came to Sadili, my  tennis  wasn't  that  good  but  now, I  have  tremendously  improved  and  this year, Malezi called me to play for the school team for the second year running in the national school games, where my partner Jamin Luvembe and I won the District, County , Regionals and Nationals, and represented Kenya at the East Africa Ball games in Lira, Uganda, where we won the doubles title again. I have also had a great chance to play for Uganda in the 14 and Under Circuit in April, I and I am now number 2 in the Under 16 boys in the Tennis Africa Cup (www.tennisafrica.info). I hope to perform even better next year, so that I my scholarship can be extended and I can remain in the Africa Talent Training Academy - SATTA. I have seen many tennis players who behave very badly, and my  dream  is  to  become  a  well  educated  professional  tennis  player!
If you would like to support me, please go to http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/support-child-education-sport-talent-fund-in-africa/
    

Shebani Kabura Is Living His Dreams

Playing at the UK Tour in May 2010

My name is Shebani Kabura. I was born in 1998 at a place call Buyenzi in Burundi. Buyenzi is a very small slum known widely in Eastern Africa, just like Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, where there is no electricity, water is hard to find and very few toilets. I was brought up in a very poor family and grow up in a very bad environment. My parents are both jobless and we are ten in our family. I have been playing tennis since I was 8 years old. I used to follow my older brother, Amadi Kagoma, to a local tennis club in Bujumbura, where I would help Amadi when he played with rich members and their children, while picking balls, in order to get some money to pay for our school fees, buy ourselves clothes and food for our family.

I learned a lot while copying my brother Amadi, and he always said that he would one day to go to a good school and get a good job, like many of the rich kids did. When he joined Malezi School in 2006, I was very happy for him, but very sad, because I could no longer follow him. In 2007, when I was 9 years old, Kassie McIlvaine, who had sponsored Amadi to Malezi told me that she would help me go for a special camp in Sadili, and if the lady there liked me, then I would get to join Amadi. I was very excited! I went with a team of players from Burundi, many of us from Buyenzi slum. When we were there, we met many other kids from around Africa and made friends. That is when I met Dr. Liz Odera, who was in charge of Sadili Oval. For two weeks we worked very hard and learned about life and played tennis for many hours. Then some of us were chosen to go for interviews at Malezi School. I was very scared. I did not pass the interview well, but I was one of the 3 children chosen that year, because of my hard work during the camp.  I remember that Coach George Muga taught me my backhand during that camp, I had never played a backhand before.

I joined Malezi School the next year, and now I was very happy, because I was back with my brother and he looked after me until I made my own friends. Catching up with school was hard because I had to learn English as we spoke French in Burundi, and I often got into trouble because I did not understand what the teacher was saying and reading was hard for me so I would do my homework. The only subject I liked was Maths because the symbols were easy to understand.  I enjoy tennis, and training is very tough. I am working hard to pass my final primary exams this year, and I am praying that Dr. Liz chooses me to join the Sadili Talent Training Academy, next year, where I can balance school and tennis and play many junior tournaments like my brother is doing. I am now ranked number 1 in the Boys Under 16 Tennis Africa Cup, and number 10 in the Confederation of Africa Tennis. With Sadili, I have travelled to America in 2009, where I won a Boys Under 14 tournament. I don’t know what I want to be in the future, but I know that it will have a tennis racquet.