"Goals for Girls 2009 Project Uganda" is a program of HELP International. We are all varsity soccer players at Timpview High School in Provo, Utah. There are 15 of us, ages 14-18. We are not just a girls soccer team; we are a support system, a sisterhood, and a dedicated group of determined and focused girls. We have learned many life lessons through the game of soccer, one in particular being that every girl should have a goal. We are traveling to Uganda to promote just that, and the trip this summer is called "Goals for Girls 2009 Project Uganda".

"Goals for Girls" is a program created in 2007 by Ian Oliver who took his Washington D.C. based girls' soccer team to South Africa to educate about AIDS through the medium of soccer. We are the "Goals for Girls 2009 Project Uganda" and are the second high school-aged girls' soccer team in history to visit Africa, and the first to East Africa. We will be in Uganda from June 3 to June 17^th. Our focus this year is many fold. First, we want to promote health and education through the game of soccer. Secondly, we want to try to alter the stigma associated with women and sport. We want to share with our fellow Ugandan sisters that every girl should have a goal. We want to make a statement about women and sport, and that through sport, many of life's most important lessons and desired characteristics are learned.

We are very aware of the barriers that girls our age face in Uganda. We have learned about the cultural and historical practices in Uganda regarding women, as well as parental attitudes towards female sport that have made it difficult for girls to compete as equally as men do. We want to send these young girls a message of hope and determination...both in soccer and in life.

Our wonderful host while in Uganda is The Kids League (TKL). TKL is a soccer league based in Kampala that has over 40,000 children (both male and female) participating. This league has programs throughout the entire country, and has done much to improve the lives of many disadvantaged kids through sport. We feel honored and privileged to work the TKL, and really look forward to our two weeks with them.

While in Uganda, we will be participating in many events. We will be spending one week in Gulu, and one week in Kampala. While in Kampala, we will be holding an exhibition game, visiting Katanga slum, the Federation of Uganda Football, and various orphan homes and schools.

In Gulu, we will be visiting Laroo Boarding school where we will hold a motivational training for formerly abducted young girls, hold a soccer clinic at Peche Stadium for one hundred girls, have a mini tournament, and visit Murchison Falls.

We cannot express how excited we are to visit Uganda and to work with our peers across the world. There is already a special place in our hearts for the young girls of Uganda. We have created a blog that each of us update about the progress of our trip and fundraising efforts. Check us out at: www.goalsforgirls.blogspot.com.