Michelle Baker is a born-and-raised West Seattleite – attended Lafayette Elementary, Madison Middle School, and West Seattle High School – but right now she’s in Butare, Rwanda (map), as part of her International Studies major at Seattle University. Before she left, she held a Beads for Life fundraiser to help Ugandan women – the photo above shows Michelle and mom Julie at the fundraiser. Now that she’s in Africa, Michelle is writing about her experiences online – michellejbaker.blogspot.com. But her trip is about more than studying; Michelle — a longtime soccer player — and her friend Caitlin, from Colorado, are also spending time in Uganda and have written a proposal to carry out a dream to help women through sports, by starting a soccer team in Northern Uganda. They need support, including money. Read on to see what they want to do and why:

This is the full text of the proposal, as forwarded by Julie Baker on her daughter’s behalf:

“A women is like a tea bag…you never know how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Hello!

Michelle Baker is a junior at Seattle University studying International Studies and Non-Profit Leadership. She grew up playing soccer for 12 years in a recreational team in West Seattle, Washington. Looking back, soccer has played a vital role in shaping the person she has become; a strong, confident empowered female. Having traveled around Washington State, Hawaii, and Europe for soccer tournaments, she has discovered the capability of soccer to connect people at a local, national, and international level.

Caitlin Long is a senior at the University of Colorado Boulder studying Cultural Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Studies. After spending a summer in Ghana working at an orphanage, she found her way back to the continent for the program she is currently participating in Uganda and Rwanda. Through her travels and experience playing soccer for high school, club, and university for many years, Caitlin has found that it unites and empowers women both in Colorado and around the world.

We are currently studying post-armed-conflict transformation in Gulu, Northern Uganda where we have been on the ground living with a family experiencing first hand the affects of the twenty three year-long war that has devastated not only the community in Gulu, but all of Northern Uganda.

Having personally witnessed the fulfillment that soccer brings into the lives of others, we have made it our goal to build upon the mutual belief of enriching and empowering the lives of women through sports. Both on and off the field, soccer helps to create and strengthen sustainable relationships, build leadership skills, and provide the confidence needed for life skills. Soccer creates a local and international based support system by crossing cultural boundaries and bringing people together globally.

For the case of Northern Uganda, sports therapy is a common theme in non-governmental organizations’ (NGO) discourse regarding the reintegration of ex-combatants and children who were formally abducted by the Lords Resistance Army. The time of fragile peace that exists now in Northern Uganda has given local community-based organizations a chance to mobilize and help rebuild throughout Northern Uganda after the two-decade civil war.

We have been researching the local peace initiatives that are integrating women and girls, many of whom were abducted and forced to be sex slaves, as they move back into the community. From our experience living in the region, we have found that there is a strong desire for peace mechanisms that incorporate positive empowerment and community building. One mechanism that has been overwhelmingly expressed to provide these needs is soccer.

During our time spent here in Gulu, we have found ourselves struggling from within looking for a way to give back to the community. Our goal is to focus on building sustainable relationships through creating a local women’s soccer team that will strengthen the physical, emotional, and spiritual well being of formerly abducted women and girls.

Upon contacting our family and friends about the situation of women here in Northern Uganda, we have received a lot of emotional support and encouragement in formulating this project. However, without any financial support, we cannot move forward with our plan of action. Funding will be vital in supporting the creation of this team as well as the local economy in Gulu through purchasing balls, cleats, uniforms, water, nets, etc. During the two-months we will spend creating this project we will assess the needs of the community in order to ensure local involvement.

In order to make this a sustainable project and have the potential to grow and expand long term, we would need the funds to be able to travel between Uganda and the United States until we graduate from university. We are planning to return to Northern Uganda early in 2010 for a committed length of time. While in the United States we will focus on gaining local support and utilizing training opportunities to improve our capabilities of running this program. Being students and struggling with our own scholastic goals, we have no means of moving forward with this program independently, which is why we, and the women of Gulu, would appreciate any support offered.

We believe that by supporting this women sports therapy project in Northern Uganda; you will assist us in expanding the focus and commitment to women’s empowerment through sports at an international level that will create purposeful connections globally. Women of Northern Uganda need this outlet of expression to start rebuilding their lives and we strongly believe that soccer is a universal tool for helping them to do so.

Thank you so much for your consideration and support. We look forward to hearing your reply.

Sincerely,

Caitlin Long & Michelle Baker

We’ve also uploaded their proposal, originally a Word doc, as a PDF if you want to link it directly (here’s the link). Julie says her daughter is getting e-mail, though not necessarily quickly since she’s overseas; her address is bakerm1@seattleu.edu – and if you have ideas to support their dream, she would love to hear from you.