How love cost Cherop her athletics dream

Gloria Cherop, 22, is an athlete and since her childhood, she aspired to make a mark on the international scene as a gold medalist. 

Cherop had role models, some were from her village in Mokotu in Bukwo district. She trained and read hard as well.

In 2018, after O’ level, she was recruited on the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) team and her family jubilated.  

Cherop’s parents had separated due to domestic violence, leaving her and her three siblings under the care of their mother, a tailor. 

“Our father was violent. He would beat up our mother in our presence,” she says.

Meanwhile, all was good for Cherop at UWA, thanks to the travels and allowances she got but before she could achieve her dream, things changed for the worst.

She fell in love with a fellow athlete and moved in with him. She says he promised her heaven on earth only to discover that it was all lies. He was on the Prisons team.

“My boyfriend was an alcoholic and wife-beater. I later discovered that he had been married four times. His wives could not put up with his violence,” she says.

“He would also beat me at leisure even when I was pregnant,” she adds.

To cut a long story short, Cherop went back to her mother’s home when she was seven months pregnant. 

“He came and pleaded. I gave him a second chance but he blew it. I left again and when he heard that I had a baby girl, he rejected her,” she says.

About that time, Cherop was introduced to MIFUMI, a women rights organisation that works at the grassroots throughout Uganda. 

She trained in tailoring and joined a group of youth champions who traverse villages sensitising women about their rights.

“We help victims of domestic violence and we fight female genital mutilation as well,” she says.