Pride of Australia: Peace Proscovia found herself in netball

Peace Proscovia has not only overcome unimaginable odds to survive, she’s become one of the best netball players in the country.

STANDING on the court with a ball in her hand, she could be herself.

She could forget the pain and suffering she felt as she lived in abject poverty with an abusive father who shunned women.

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Out there playing netball was the only time Peace Proscovia, 29, felt happiness.

Proscovia has not only overcome unimaginable odds to survive, but she’s become one of the best players in the country as she helped take the Sunshine Coast Lightning to the grand final this year – earning her a Pride of Australia nomination.

“Netball has given me so many opportunities and it has lifted me from nothing to something,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without netball… going through what I did, I learnt to fight for my dreams and I learned to help other people.”

Proscovia grew up in a small village in the Arua district of northwestern Uganda, near the border of the Congo and South Sudan, in a house with no windows or doors.

Her family could barely afford to buy food, let alone the shoes she needed to play sport, but Proscovia was never going to be defeated.

She grew and sold her own vegetables to afford the $2 per term it cost to go to school, where she found netball.

Netball star Peace Proscovia has found a new life on the Sunshine Coast. Pictures: Lachie Millard

The sport became much more than a game, but her saviour.

When she was playing netball, she wasn’t at home being tormented by her alcoholic father, who saw no value in women – not even his daughters.

“The time I’m playing on that pitch is the happiest moment because the people I’m seeing around me are giving me smiles and giving me the reason to live,” she said.

“I was a different Peace on pitch and a different Peace in the house because when I got to the house, I was always harassed, tortured and it was not good for me.”

In her community, girls were sold off for marriage in exchange for food, but Proscovia disobeyed her father’s orders and fled her village to play netball.

As she settles into life in Sippy Downs on the Sunshine Coast, she’s fast becoming an extraordinary inspiration to budding athletes.

Together with the University of Sunshine Coast, Proscovia has launched an initiative to help young children in Uganda.

She hopes to give them the opportunities she never had.

“We are collecting sports equipment… to send back to help Ugandan children,” she said.

News Corp Australia, publisher of The Courier-Mail, is partnering with Australia Post and Seven News to stage the 2019 Pride of Australia awards.

Nominations are open at prideofaustralia.com.au until October 21.