Each year, the Women’s Boxing Club at the University of Notre Dame hosts the Baraka Bouts tournament to raise funds for Holy Cross education in Uganda. This year, they aim to raise $75,000 to help bring to completion a new girls’ dormitory that will make high-quality education available for generations of young women in Uganda. To learn more about Baraka Bouts or attend the 2024 tournament on November 11, 18, & 21, visit baraka.holycrossmissions.org.

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“Why I Fight for St. Joseph’s Hill”

By Monica Caponigro

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Why do I fight? 

When I was 9 or 10, I was on Notre Dame’s campus for a game day Friday while my dad had a meeting. My brother and I were walking around campus when a group of girls I would later come to know as the Notre Dame Women’s Boxing club asked me if I wanted to do a plank with them on South Quad. Little did they know that just asking me to join them for a plank would inspire me to join the boxing club nine years later as a first year at Notre Dame because they showed me as a 9- or 10-year-old that I could be strong, and I wanted that for other little girls, too. 

Today, after a summer spent in Kyambogo, Uganda at St. Joseph’s Hill Senior Secondary School teaching, Baraka Bouts and its work carry such a more profound meaning to me. Getting to teach the St. Joseph’s Hill students that this club impacts through our fundraising efforts showed me just how much our club impacts the education of thousands of students in East Africa each year. Getting to teach boxing to the students was a gift, to bridge together the strength I love from boxing with the support of the schools we offer in East Africa at the same time. Kyambogo will always have a place in my heart. 

Baraka Bouts has shown me a unique intersection of service, strength, and learning that exists within myself. I fight because Baraka Bouts becomes a home for girls like me striving to be strong for myself, striving to serve those near and far, and continuously learning about relationships and community-building. To show girls that they can be strong, to show them that they can be strong for themselves and be strong for people around them, too. I fight for Baraka Bouts because it is one of the most Notre Dame things I can do: fight, serve, and make the world a better place.

Purchase tickets for the 2024 Baraka Bouts Tournament

Published: October 29, 2024