Doreen Nabwire Omondi, of streetfootballworld network member
Mathare Youth Sports Association in Kenya, has achieved what many young people in her homeland only dream of. She will spend a year in Germany playing football for Werder Bremen in the women’s second league and providing organisational support for the club in the area of social management. The path to attaining this goal, however, was not always easy for the 22-year-old Kenyan.

Doreen was born and raised with five siblings in the slums of Ngomongo and Mathare in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Since early childhood, football has been her constant companion. Between corrugated sheet metal houses and wooden huts, Doreen kicked soda cans barefoot in the mud until she and her friends took the initiative to create rag balls out of plastic bags and laces. At age ten Doreen joined the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA).

Footballing talent and social commitment
In 2002, Doreen brought her footballing talent to Mathare United Women FC, the women’s team representing MYSA in the Kenyan league. There she won yet another in a long list of championships. Previously, as captain of the U-14 team as well as if her school team, she had led her squads to countless championships, titles and distinctions. In December 2001 she made the Kenyan national team, the Harambee Starlets, for the first time. On the side she was also very involved as team leader for AIDS prevention with MYSA, where she taught fun seminars to teach young people about HIV and effective prevention.   

In recognition of her dedication and commitment, Doreen was nominated, along with the MYSA team, to take part in the streetfootballworld festival 06. In the finals there she prepared for the equaliser against South Africa, and she and her team brought the winner’s trophy home to Kenya. FIFA and various personalities from the sports world took notice of the young woman with the powerful kick and radiant charm. 

To media stardom and back
At the end of 2007, Doreen became a media star and female sports idol in her home country, standing on stage alongside Georg Weah, Franz Beckenbauer and Marcel Desailly during the qualification draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Durban, South Africa. As an ambassador for Football for Hope, Doreen shared her knowledge and experiences and emphasized the importance of social work through football.   

Her newfound celebrity, however, was not enough at first to help her attain a better life. Following the political rioting and violence of December 2007, opportunities in professional sports in Kenya significantly decreased. There is no longer a women’s league, and even the Kenyan women’s national team has sunk into insignificance. Never one to let herself get discouraged, Doreen coached a young boys’ team at the German school in Nairobi, and used her earnings to finance college and a German course at the Goethe Institute.

German tour
On the initiative of German documentary filmmaker and journalist Herbert Ostwald, who lived in Kenya for several years and who has been accompanying Doreen with a camera since 2006, she came to Germany in spring 2009 for trial practice with various football clubs from the first to the third league. Her foremost considerations were not only athletic, but also included the possibility of professional prospects, as well as the milieu of the clubs. Throughout her club search and her stay in Germany, she also received support from PLAY!YA e.V., an independent organisation based in Berlin and Lagos, Nigeria. PLAY!YA deals with sport and its social impact and participates in many different projects, including collaborations with streetfootballworld.  

Despite Doreen’s compelling athletic skill, as a non-EU citizen she still requires a visa, which is most easily attained through a professional contract. No women’s football club in Germany could fulfil this requirement. Nevertheless, Doreen returned to Kenya with a good feeling, knowing that she could play football at the highest level.

The dream comes true
Doreen’s perseverance and ambition have paid off, making her dream of a better life a reality. During a UN Convention in Nairobi, Willi Lemke–Werder Bremen’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board and UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace–established contact with Doreen.  

She made her first visit to the Hanseatic city in the summer and, after overcoming bureaucratic obstacles, Doreen has been living, kicking and working on the Weser River for a good three weeks.  Her primary task with the Bremen club will be to provide organisational support for the team in the area of social management. She brings many years of experience in social work in the slums of Nairobi to the “100% Werder Worldwide” and “Scort” projects; as an adviser she can pass on her valuable knowledge and experiences. She will also learn and experience many new things that she can bring back to her homeland and share with other young people–particularly girls–in order to encourage them never to give up and to fight hard to achieve their goals.

In addition to her social role with the club, she is also making important contributions on the pitch. In her debut match Doreen secured the first points for the Green and White with two goals against the Hamburg SV II.  She also gave an impressive performance in her second match with the team, contributing to a 1:0 victory against the Hoheneuendorf Blue and White.  

Even Kenya’s newspaper the Daily Nation followed her, featuring a poster of the goal-scorer in its special Monday football section–where one usually finds posters of Ballack, Ronaldo or Kaka!

Herbert Ostwald and PLAY!YA will accompany and support Doreen during her stay in Germany. The young Kenyan woman is a magnificent example of how football can give people stability and offer new perspectives and improved life prospects. Her ultimate ambition is not a career in professional football, but rather new chances for a life of dignity; with the help of MYSA and many other supporters, that is exactly what Doreen has carved out for herself. These are the opportunities that streetfootballworld network members the world over are working for everyday.

The first part of the documentary “Zwischen Wellblech und Weltbühne” (“Between corrugated sheet metal and the world stage”) by Herbert Ostwald can be seen at the sixth International Football Film Festival 11mm in Berlin and on German television. You can watch a short excerpt of a Deutsche Welle segment about Doreen from early 2009 in the right column of this article.

Translated by Laura Marallo Schwarz