PICKLEBALL
The Future in Uganda Just Got Brighter
Pickleball’s Unifying Force is the Desire to Spread the Addiction
Pickleball has often been called the world’s healthiest addiction. Players routinely go from being introduced to the game to playing multiple times a day in just a few short weeks. They find themselves with the “itch” essentially every time they wake up.
Like other addictions, what powers the growth of pickleball is the desire to afflict the unafflicted. If I’m having this much fun playing a sport invented for some bored kids on an island in Washington, doesn’t it stand to reason that others would have just as much fun? Of course, the answer is yes.
I was reminded of the sport’s unifying force when I met Banja Faisal, one of the leaders of the youth pickleball movement in Uganda. Unlike the U.S., Uganda has had no true pickleball courts to date. That is, until Banja decided to spread the addiction.
Banja and his fellow leaders in the Uganda Pickleball Association set their sites on the vulnerable, the children of Kampala. While Kampala is the country’s largest city, its children often face the same fate as many kids in Uganda: early labor driven by rampant poverty and lack of the resources that we in the U.S. take completely for granted.
Banja decided to use pickleball to support the children of Kampala, engage them in steady physical activity, and work to find them the educational, healthcare, and financial resources they need to break the cycle of poverty.
Like many youth leaders, Banja has an incredibly important trait: he’s fearless. Unafraid to ask for support, he reached out to me via Instagram. I was immediately struck by his desire to use pickleball as a platform for helping Ugandan youth.
Together, we spearheaded an effort to raise $10,000 to build the country’s first true pickleball courts. Having raised $1,800 so far, we got to watch recently as the children of Kikaaya, a neighborhood in the city of Kampala, played pickleball on the very first court to be “tarmacked” in the country.
Just like listening to pickleball in the U.S., what we heard when we watched that first game were two things: the resonant “thwack” of the ball hitting the paddle, and the ensuing laughter of kids playing the world’s best game.
There is still more money to be raised to complete Banja’s vision, but this first court was a critical starting point. It’s a “first worst” proposition that proves what we can do when we band together to show kids a different way forward.
This court is not about producing professional players, although I wouldn’t be surprised with that outcome, but rather about showing the kids of Kampala that people love them enough to introduce them to the world’s healthiest addiction. While the long-term impact remains to be seen, I believe the future just got a little bit brighter in Kikaaya.
To help the kids of Kampala, contribute to our GoFundMe here.
