Rather than spend their spring break tanning and partying in a tropical locale, members of the women's rugby team are planning a more unconventional - and humanitarian - excursion. The team has decided to spend its spring break promoting women's rugby in the central African country of Uganda.
Thirty-two members of the team, two coaches, three alums and a doctor will be spending 13 days in Kampala, Uganda's capital city. They will be running clinics for girls at the rugby club in Kampala, visiting a school for children orphaned by AIDS and, of course, playing rugby. They will be facing the "Thunderbirds," Uganda's women's rugby team, twice, in addition to spending a weekend playing teams from five different nations, including teams from Kenya and Rwanda.
This alternative spring break idea was conceived by captain Jennifer Hustwitt '07, who spent the summer after her freshman year working with a community-based organization in a Ugandan village. After her sophomore year, she received a Royce Fellowship and was able to return to Uganda to do research at a secondary school in Kampala.
While in Uganda that summer, Hustwitt attended a women's rugby game.
"It was one of the most inspiring games I've ever seen, just to see it played in such a different context," she said.
Upon returning to the United States, Hustwitt proposed to team members that they travel to Uganda to learn about and participate in the growing women's rugby movement there.
And so the team's saga began. Head Coach Kerrissa Heffernan, who is also the director of the Royce Fellowship program, explained that after much consideration, the team decided to collaborate in fundraising efforts so that no member of the team would be unable to go on the trip. Together, members organized a raffle with prizes including tickets to London and weekends at cottages in Maine and Quebec. The team organized a phone-a-thon to request support from Brown women's rugby alums.
"When we ran into dead ends in organizing it I always just thought, 'If we can't do this at one of the top universities in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, then what does that mean?'" Hustwitt said. "That got me to write another 10 e-mails."
The team's relentless efforts have raised $73,000, and it is currently looking to raise $10,000 more before departing.
As Hustwitt put it, "There are three parts to this trip: the physical part, which is playing rugby, the fundraising part and then the part where you think about what it means to go there. Where you think, 'What are the implications across such socioeconomic and cultural divides?'"
This week, Hustwitt and a fellow rugby player will present a paper at a conference at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio titled "Women, Gender and Sport in Africa."
Heffernan explained that the team's trip is a way to empower women across borders, "connecting women to women." She said there are many mysteries surrounding the recent growth of women's rugby in Africa, adding, "It is significant that in a country where women are so poorly regarded, they are picking up a combative sport that is viewed as the 'warrior sport.'"
"More than us going there to empower women, I like to think of it as us going there to learn about the experience women are having playing a traditionally male sport," Hustwitt said. "I feel sometimes the idea of helping can get old and become demeaning, so we wanted to collaborate and play together instead. It's helping both sides. It's mutually beneficial, not one-sided."
