The life-changing outcome of sports

The life-changing outcome of sports

Sydney Taylor, Staff Writer

Sports have given athletes everywhere in poverty and struggle a chance to break away from their mold. There are movies and television shows dedicated to the new life a sport can give to a person, including an abducted child from Uganda.

Kassima Ouma, professional boxer, was kidnapped at 5-years-old in his village in Uganda and forced into a rebel army. Ouma later made it out of Uganda and into America to become a champion in boxing.

As a child, he was taught to use a gun and trained to be a killer. The army, led by Yoweri Museveni, was in the midst of taking over to rise above the current dictator, Milton Obote. He was away from his family over three years with no contact.  Ouma even was forced to kill a childhood friend or die himself. He doesn’t like talking about his time being a rebel soldier.

Ouma stood out to a military boxing club in 1996 and was asked to compete in the Atlanta Olympics, but had no funds to get there. He traveled to America a couple years later and joined Alexandria Boxing Club. Later in March of 1998, Ouma went to a Golden Gloves tournament and when a competitor dropped out, he stepped in and won the match.

In 2002 he achieved the American Junior light middleweight title. Then two years later, won  the IBF world junior light middleweight title by defeating Verno Phillips.

Natabonic is a charity that Ouma became a part of to help fund education for his extended family and local villagers along with providing ways for clean water to be accessible to villages in Africa.