Daneka Samuel turned up on the first day of the gears handout, and despite being told that this project was geared for boys (this time around), she insisted that she gets gears. “I play ball too! I am just like one of the boys!” she would exclaim.
Over the next 24 hrs, “I play ball too, I should get gears.”, became her mantra. She finally ended her mantra but only after she got her gears: She had accompanied a group of boys who had come to pick up their gears; she saw a pair of red Adidas cleats and insisted that she try them on (because they look like her fit). She got her wish – they fit.
Daneka got the pair of shoes along with her uniform and became the first girl to benefit from this project. A few more girls got some jersies, one kindagarten girl got a pair of shoes). Also, Daneka seemed to have incited some other girls to get involved in soccer, they enlisted for future project.