Boots Don’t Lie – Mariam Mell’Osiime Mpaata

From a housewife to a sports activist.

“Boots Don’t Lie” begins in Mombasa in 2007, when my nine year old son breaks the windscreen of a neighbour’s Mercedes Benz with his football!

Despite not being a sports enthusiast, caught up  in ongoing post election violence in a foreign country, a Muslim woman, I took a leap of faith by establishing a safe space – the Junior Stars Football Academy in Mombasa on 7th, April 2008, so that my son and many other youngsters would play in a safe space. In later years I founded other football initiatives both in Kenya and Uganda. Through these, we influenced and impacted over 100,000 youth, women and men to take on sports as a career, for advocacy, networking, or as a healthy life style. It has been a roller coaster filled with a myriad of both challanges and victories.

Interestingly in 2013, when I took another leap of faith to write Boots Don’t Lie, I did not imagine that it would take 9 years to complete. I required more resilience and perseverance to accomplish it than I imagined, giving me opportunity to give it my best and to appreciate that God’s timing is the best.

Whereas *BOOTS DON’T LIE* is *an inspirational book* that  tells of my resilient journey from a housewife to a sports activist, the exciting NEWS is that it is not just a sports story, *it is a human story* . My expriences are human and resonate with many. In the book you will find stories of talented and at times cheeky  young footballers who have now turned into responsible adults, me falling in love, challenges of balancing motherhood and work, surviving miscarriages, overcoming financial challenges, battling insecurities of being in a male dominated space, my failures as a manager and how I bounced back, losing a father at 13 and how I used writing to overcome my insecurities, lessons from playing football, my big plans to change the sports industry using sports education and many more intriguing and humorous moments that have all shaped the woman I am today.

My dream is to spread a little more sunshine and hope. That no matter where you come from, whatever little or vast resources you have, and whatever gifts you have, it is possible to take your situation and change yourself and the world around you for the better. Nothing is really impossible untill you give up.

Funds from Boots Don’t Lie will go into a fundraising kitty for Afrika Sports Foundation Centre the host for a sports education centre for East Africa.