Fourteen Sierra Leonean amputee football players, the de-facto National Team, departed for the United Kingdom in late August 2003 to play their English counterparts. The Players lost their limbs during Sierra Leone's brutal decade-long civil war. Most due to forced amputations. The team began two years ago as a soccer club founded by amputees who only wanted an opportunity to play the game they loved. It is evolving into a tool for self-empowerment in one if the world's poorest counties. All the players occupy their country's lowest financial strata, have little opportunity for employment, and have been stigmatized by society, thus further prohibiting economic and personal advancements. The tour's goal was to bring attention to their plight and more attention to the programs, actual and planned, to assist amputees. The players also wanted victory on the pitch. The tour was organized by "Action for Children in Conflict" an NGO wanting to increase public awareness of their activities in Africa. The NGO also viewed the tour as an opportunity to use sport as a therapeutic vehicle for victims of trauma. The team failed to defeat the UK's National Amputee team. Time will tell if the exposure they received, both in the UK and in Sierra Leone, will lead the players, and by extension all amputees in Sierra Leone, toward a more promising future.