Published: March 30, 2011
Born into a Uganda slum, 14-year-old Phiona Mutesa is the “ultimate underdog,” according to freelance journalist Tim Crothers, who spoke at Lynchburg College this week.
“Katwe, where she lives, is a place where dreams are discouraged,” Crothers said.
Against all odds, Phiona, who could barely read and write, earned a spot at the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Russia, where she competed against chess champions from around the world.
Crothers, a freelance journalist from North Carolina, chronicled Phiona’s experience for a January issue of ESPN Magazine. He was invited to speak in Lynchburg Tuesday night for LC’s ongoing effort to raise awareness about poverty in Uganda and Haiti. Events this week also included a human chess game Wednesday at the college to raise money for relief efforts in both countries.
In a way, Lynchburg’s ties to Phiona run deep. At age 9, Phiona got hooked on chess through Sports Outreach, a Lynchburg-based mission organization stationed in her slum.
Run by a six-person staff in Lynchburg, Sports Outreach supports a team of 140 missionaries who provide relief to some of the world’s poorest people. The missionaries use sports, mainly soccer, to connect with local communities.
“Sports is such a wonderful, universal language,” said Rodney Suddith, executive director of Sports Outreach. “We like to say, ‘It all starts with a ball.’”
In the Katwe slum, Sports Outreach added a chess project for kids who didn’t take to soccer. Had it not been for the Lynchburg nonprofit, Phiona might never have picked up a chess piece.
When Crothers met Phiona last fall, she lived in a 10-foot-by-10-foot shack with her mother and four siblings.
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