Joy Stalteri-Roberts was part of AKFC’s 2025-26 cohort of International Youth Fellows. She was placed in Kampala, working as a Work and Enterprise Fellow at Aga Khan Foundation, Uganda.
While in Canada, I reached out to past Fellows, expats, and local sports groups to get a sense of what might be available. I wanted to arrive with a plan. What I found instead was an abundance. Once in Kampala, the challenge wasn’t finding activities — it was choosing between them. Running groups, climbing and hiking clubs, cycling, swimming, even salsa classes — often meeting multiple times a week.
I quickly began trying different activities, sometimes alone, sometimes with other Fellows, and soon with new friends. These spaces became essential — not just for my physical and mental health, but for building community.
Through sport, I connected with people across generations and backgrounds, from toddlers at the climbing wall to runners in their seventies who never miss a weekly session. Sport became one of the fastest ways I integrated into life here.
Running, in particular, has remained constant in my life. I began marathon training about five years ago, and while the physical benefits matter, the social impact has been far more profound. Uganda has been the most welcoming running community I’ve been part of. Races here are not just competitions — they’re social events that bring people together across regions to travel, celebrate, and support one another.
One of the clearest examples of this was the Mt. Rwenzori Marathon. Since launching in 2022, it has grown from just over 800 runners to more than 5,000 participants from 36 countries. For me, it was also the most joyful race I attended in Uganda. I spent the day running alongside people I had come to know through the Kampala running community, greeted by cultural dances and performances along the route, and grinding my way up what is widely considered the most dreaded hill of any race in the country.
Beyond the personal challenge, it was easy to see how the marathon had transformed Kasese — hotels and guesthouses were fully booked, tours to nearby attractions were difficult to arrange as guides and drivers were already engaged, and the smooth roads stood in sharp contrast to much of the rest of Uganda. The race also provides Ugandan athletes with a globally recognized platform to compete and qualify for international events. Experiencing this firsthand showed me how sport, when done well, can generate meaningful community-level impact.
At the same time, these experiences have highlighted a tension. Registration fees, the costs of transport, gear, and time mean that organized sport remains a privilege for many. That tension — between sport as empowerment and sport as exclusion — became especially clear during a trip to Northern Uganda.
After participating in a marathon in Gulu with my running group, I travelled to Arua and Yumbe to collect success stories as part of the close-out of the GAC-funded Foundations for Education and Empowerment (F4EE) project.
There, I interviewed participants from the Olu Alu Campaign, a youth-led movement aimed at reducing school dropouts, preventing gender-based violence, and addressing substance abuse. The young women I interviewed, Mourine and Vivian, explained something that I found very innovative: over the course of the campaign, sporting events were organized.
The sports galas included football, and netball matches for boys and girls. These events were not just recreational; they were intentionally designed as entry points for dialogue. Each game began with awareness sessions on the key issues, led by youth change agents, mentors, and staff. Teachers, parents, and community leaders attended, turning the events into community-wide conversations. I learned that the sports activities even drew young people who had previously dropped out of school back into the school environment — demonstrating how sport can act as a powerful incentive for re-engagement and a tool for empowerment.
As well, girls played visible leadership roles — as debaters, athletes, organizers, and advocates — directly countering narratives that often limit their participation in public and physical spaces. This illustrates how sport-based spaces can create accessible and empowering entry points for young people, particularly young women, to build confidence, develop leadership skills, and drive change.
Being part of Kampala’s running community and witnessing these initiatives firsthand has deepened my passion for sport for development.
Sport can build confidence, strengthen communities, and challenge harmful norms — when it is intentional and inclusive. I look forward to continuing to work in this space, bringing together my love of running with a commitment to gender equity and community-driven change.
AKFC's International Youth Fellowship offers an intensive, practical, pre-departure training program and an eight-month overseas placement in a meaningful role to recent university graduates and young professionals aged 30 or under. Learn more about the program.