The Chance to Thrive

“I know my responsibilities as a role model to those I coach who look up to me"

Angeline B. Kieh (18) is a young leader at Football to Develop Destitute (FODEDE) in Liberia and the national football team’s brightest talent. But life has never been easy for the Lone Star hit woman and, had she not been discovered by FODEDE, her potential may have never been fulfilled. This is her story.

It was a Saturday, March 7 – the biggest game of my life so far. I’m 18-years old and about to lead the line for Liberia in the third-place play-off in the West African Football Union (WAFU) tournament.

Our opponents, Cape Verde, are a very good side but my team, my girls, we always believe in each other’s abilities.

In the build-up, I was everything you would expect me to be.

Excited. Nervous. Ready.

This was a big moment for us and people back home were paying attention. We come from modest lives and this was a chance to show that through hard work, discipline and dedication, you can still follow your dreams.

I wanted to score so badly, and my dreams the night before were filled with visions of me scoring the winning goal.

The build-up was tense but as the crowd gathered around us I found myself thinking of my past, of my journey, and all I had gone through that led me to this moment. Of all the people who had helped me get here. Of my mother, of my family, of FODEDE and of Liberia.

Before I tell you whether I was able to score the winning goal that day, let me take you back there for a moment – because it is there that my story began.

When I was a young child I was surrounded by poverty. Liberia had not long escaped the clutches of civil war and in places like my hometown opportunity was limited.

If your parents have money, you focus on school. If your parents don’t, then you must do what you can to survive. It is a place where the crime rate is high and teenage pregnancy maybe even more so.

My mother was in a constant battle with a long-protracted illness. Mine was a constant battle with worry.

Though my father worked hard as a fisherman – like most families, money was scarce. For me, that meant being taken out of school early each day to help to sell the fish my father caught.

They say my town is a place where, in order to survive, you must dream small.

But my dreams have always been big.

You see, in my spare time I developed a love for football. Whether it was on street corners or in open spaces there was always a ball at my feet.

Every minute of every day, football was on my mind – maybe even too much!

Though my love for the game would ultimately be what would give me a better life, back then, it would often get me in to trouble.

You can probably tell that football is my passion and I must admit that I have always loved school, but selling fish?

Not quite as much.

Sometimes I may have been playing football instead of selling fish but come on, I was only eight!

If my aunt would catch me on the football field, she would chase me through the streets and if she caught me…Well I would get quite a beating, but nothing was going to stop me. I was obsessed. I still am.

It’s a good thing too, because one day when playing football in a practice session in my community I was spotted by a man called Mr Wallace G. Weiah. He recognised my potential immediately and approached me after the session.

He asked all about me, my parents, where I lived, what school I went to. Everything.

I told him of the difficulties my family faced, not being able to regularly attend school and my worries about my sick mother. He told me about his organisation FODEDE, and how he could help me.

Not long after he would come to my family home to tell my parents about FODEDE. They listened intently to what he had to say, that FODEDE would like to sponsor me in football, education, and other basic needs.

They saw that FODEDE was able to offer me the opportunity to pursue a path in football and get to go to school every day and agreed with Wallace that it would be in my best interests to join his organisation.

Though it meant leaving my family and living one town over, I was also really excited. All of the things I wanted to do in life would be made available to me.

When I first arrived, for a time, I was so happy because I constantly got to play football.

FODEDE are members of the best women’s club in Liberia – the Earth Angels. It was here that I could thrive.

I soon became a valued member of every age group I played for and was gaining a reputation as an excellent striker – scoring goals every game and dreaming of one day playing for the national team.

Meanwhile, FODEDE also ensured myself and other talented young footballers could attend school every day, something which had not always been guaranteed to us.

School was going great too with the constant exercise afforded to me in the football sessions making it easier to focus in class and the computer work meaning I could broaden my skills.

However, when I was 11, my biggest fear came true.

My mother died.

For quite some time I was extremely upset, and I found it difficult to go to school, and hard to focus when I did so.

It took a while, but football at FODEDE has helped to ease my pain. On the football pitch I could take my mind off things and focus solely on the game. Eventually I was able to focus again at school.

Though I miss her dearly, I know my mother would be proud of how far I have come.

That’s because at club level I captain my team – and have led them to three league titles in a row. At age 17 I managed to score 42 league goals in one season.

I am also a young leader in my community where I train young children at FODEDE.

I coach them in football and teach them of the importance of going to school and getting an education.

I know of my responsibilities to serve as a role model to all the youth that I coach who look up to me. I know that they see me as someone to aspire to be, and I do not take that lightly.

And that third place play-off I was telling you about? I scored the winning goal in a one nil victory.

I will never forget that moment, praying to god that my teammate Francisca Howe noticed the space I had made for myself in the box. When she did, I managed to slot the ball home.

The celebrations at the full-time whistle were wild and if my mother was there I am sure she would have run onto the pitch and lifted me up onto her back.

I couldn’t believe that I could score a goal so important for my country and for women’s football in Liberia – to this day I smile when I think about it.

My journey has not been easy but now I’m excited for the future.

I have a lot more goals to score.