NHA's Journey To The Nationals

My name is Tobias Britton and I live in Uganda, East Africa with my family. We work with an organization called New Hope Uganda and we have done so for the last 11 years. NHU has many things it is involved in and one of them is New Hope Academy (NHA). NHA is a high school in Uganda with the majority of students being orphaned, fatherless, or otherwise in need. The school has been in existence for about 19 years and in that time it has touched and educated many children. One of these ways has been through sports. Recently both the boys and girls basketball teams, NHA Stallions and NHA Mares, respectively, were able to place 3rd in the regional competitions. Against the odds we qualified to go on to the national level which will be the first week of May. This year the sponsorship needed was not available thus, the need for this GoFundMe campaign.


To the team, playing competitively means so much, in fact, we worked with our own hands to raise the funds that were needed to go to the regional competition. But the nature of national competition requires multiple days of expenses and the great distance to the competition (400 KM each way) bringing the total cost needed beyond our ability to raise on our own.


Due to the work NHU does, 85% of the children on the team come from impoverished families. Many struggle to secure two meals a day for the home and the school day ends only for work to begin somewhere until late just so that they will have enough to survive. To be able to go to the National level and show the other teams that money isn't everything would mean all world to us. Especially since most of us (both boys and girls) are in the last year of high school for before going out into the world for college and/or jobs. We are seeking only $2,000 dollars for this small African team in order to experience National Competition. This amount will cover all the necessary costs inclusive of food, lodging, transport and entry fees for the children at the National competition. Even though I am not a native Ugandan but an American, this means the same to me as it does for them. They are my teammates and we have fought for this and though it may sound like a cliché, it would mean so much to us.


For more information about New Hope Uganda and the work we do, go to www.newhopeuganda.org. I will be posting updates throughout the next 3 weeks as we prepare for the games.
Thank you very much.