In Kampala- Nakawa division, Uganda’s vibrant but unforgiving Acholi Quarters slums are found. Here, dreams are often buried beneath the crushing weight of poverty and hopes flicker like a candle in the wind. This is where the story of Uganda’s netball star Gloria Aya begins.
Aya Gloria is the eldest girl in a struggling family. Raised on just one meal a day, her childhood was shaped not by toys or books but by stones and sweat.
“It is a bad experience growing up in the slums because you have to endure and cope up with a lot and you have to be hard working. Life has not been easy growing up in the slums. Some people opt for drugs,” Aya narrates.
But even in a place where the future is stolen by circumstance, Aya dared to imagine a life beyond dust and hunger.
Most Acholi quarter children are school dropouts of whom many become parents at a young age. Others take the drug addiction route as most parents cannot afford school fees.
Growing in the slums with no good network, Aya did not have it in mind that sports would bring a golden opportunity to support her education not until she got involved in netball.
“Growing up today, my parents only buy me books but I have been lucky to have scholarships and bursaries to support my education up to university. The fact that I grew up in slums, I didn’t know that there would be a school to sponsor a girl from the slums under netball,” she remembers.
After all early struggles, Aya is a huge netball star, featuring for National insurance corporation (NIC) netball club, having also played for St Noah Girls school, Luwero UGX and Kampala University.
Growing up with no vision of playing for the national team, with divine intervention Aya is a She Cranes member.
“I never felt of putting on the national team dresses, because first of all, I was in the slums. I just thank God and the coaches that believe in me.”
Enduring hard life in the ghetto is just a way of life. Aya’s small success has turned her into the family breadwinner. This has not come with ease.
At 20 years, juggling academics and family errands breaks her, at times.
“I have to work hard, I have to impress them to make sure everything is in place. That is the challenge that I have and I hide it with a smile that no one sees.”
Aya’s mother Irene Anek is a cleaner at Luigi Giussani Pre-Primary in Banda. Like dad, she prides in her daughter’s netball journey and success.
“Aya started playing netball here in Acholi quarters. At her first national team call-up, she built this small house for us. There has been some change through Aya’s netball career,” revealed the mother.
From the populated Acholi Quarters slums, Aya looks back at her first flight and playing at an international netball court as she featured for the She Cranes.
“I was very grateful in that I was from the slums but the coaches believed in me, they gave me a chance and I believe I have not disappointed them.
The chance to the national team came after hard work, patience and endurance.
Being named the most valuable player in the 2023 East Africa Netball Club Championship in Nairobi is one of Aya’s biggest sporting achievements as aspires for the best.
