Spent an incredible week or so in Sierra Leone planning a whole new set of projects, hopefully starting in November 2017. Loads more to follow, so watch this space….
In the meantime here a few photos to whet the appetite.
And yes – WE NEED VOLUNTEERS, so get in touch!
NORTHERN MALAWI
Yup, them balls are bouncing across northern Malawi…
The Great Frootball Giveaway are currently in the north of Malawi distributing thousands more footballs and netballs to kids in some of the country’s poorer areas. Our team of volunteers arrived last week and set off for the north, starting in the Mzuzu region and branching out from there.
If you’ve given us a ball and would like to call the team while they’re out there (so you can experience it live when they give your ball away), then do call them any time on +265 996 618 191 – sure they’d love to hear from you.
In the meantime, below is a few words from Caro (one of the team that is out there) and some photos. Will keep you in touch with how things develop.
Paul
ps. You may notice that I am not out there with the team, despite originally planning to be there. Unfortunately I managed to break my wrist (playing football – silly boy) two days before travelling – The GFG is a very physical thing and unfortunatley I had to make the very painful decision not to go. Humph. Anyway, enjoy the photos…
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A big hello from Team Malawi 2013. Duncan, Karl, Steve, Caron and Caro plus our fantastic drivers Davie and Allon are currently on day four of our Great Football Giveaway tour of Malawi.
We travelled north on Sunday from the capital Lilongwe to Chikangowa distributing balls at the roadside to delighted youngsters along the way.
Day 1 in Chikangowa
We visited over 4,400 pupils between five primary schools, two secondary and two pre-preps. One of our highlights was meeting headteacher George from Mtangatanga CDSS Secondary School whose thanks for the ten balls was overwhelming as he told us the pupils would benefit so much from them and they would help them focus and excel in both their physical and academic studies.
Day 2 in Chikangowa
We visited four primary schools, one secondary school and one pre-school before making our way through to a very rural village. It was obvious to see that this community was particularly deprived and witnessing the excitement from those who received the balls we gave was another wonderful high point for us. On the way back to our base we were surprised by the appearance of some cheeky baboons – no balls for them! This fantastic day was topped off by visiting our host Joseph’s beautiful family home.
Day 3 – The road to Mzuzu
In order to reach more children, the team decided to split into two to cover more ground. One team focused on schools while the other distributed to villages off the beaten track. At one point, a mother whose children had just been given a ball expressed her joy by running to our vehicle with a huge smile and shouting “God bless you”. It’s moments like these that confirm just how positive the Great Football Giveaway’s work is.
This far north we are a long way from the capital and government funding in sparse in these parts. Our plan is now to continue further north and bring huge smiles to children’s faces in areas of the country that are most deprived.
Malawi certainly lives up to its name as being the ‘warm heart of Africa’; the team receives one beautiful welcome after another. Thank you to all who have donated and helped make this wonderful work possible. We look forward to continuing our journey.
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1,736 footballs and netballs given new homes; 67 schools, three orphanages, two care centres and one child’s prison visited; well over 2,000kms covered; nine Tanzanian towns/cities frequented with five brilliant drivers – our Great Football Giveaway project finishes today after 19 days in Tanzania. But I am sure this is not the end. The group now goes its separate ways physically – Rachael and Patch back to London, Chris and Becky out to Zanzibar for a few days, Katherine heading home to Amsterdam and Steph off to the north of the country to take on Africa’s highest mountain – but the work we have started in Mbeya feels to have barely scratched the surface. Or dust of which there is endless in South West Tanzania.
We have met several people that have had a deep impact on our time out here, three in particular who deserve special mention for the selfless work they do, day in, day out, in their local communities; Deborah McCracken who runs the Olive Branch for Centre, Dr Alex Lengeju running SOS Villages in Dar and Arthur Mbumbuka of Youth Build Future in Mbeya. All of them dedicate their own lives, energy and limited resources to help give children, as many as they can reach, better lives. Arthur, in particular, acted as our very own Mbeya host, guide and ‘go to’ man and welcomed us into his home from start to finish of the trip. A lovely man, the work Arthur currently does through Youth Build Future and the plans he has for the future are inspiring. All three that I have named are heroes to us and I thank them for everything they helped us all with during our short time out here.
The very last few footballs were excitedly handed out before noon yesterday, an emotion filled morning. However, our final ‘official’ football drop visit took place on Sunday morning. This visit was one of our most harrowing. A trip to Mbeya Children’s Prison to give some much needed footballs and netballs to kids who only have access to the outdoors for an hour a day, opened our eyes to wider problems that Tanzania faces. Two words that don’t sit right together – children and prison. Meeting over 15 of the prison’s inhabitants, kids aged between 8 and 18 years old, whose crimes ranged from suspected murder (not always proven) to stealing a mobile phone to buy much needed food for them and their starving families, has proved impossible to forget.
Through playing outdoors with these kids for an hour, our superficial experience of the prison was a positive one and it would be easy for us to mentally leave these children behind in the (false) belief that their existence is a pleasant one. Truth is we were not able to witness the reality of their lives – cramped dormitory cells, repetitive meals, regimented lives, no meaningful rehabilitation system in place. The children acted as a family unit, some clearly more secure inside the jail than they had been in their previously fractured lives with no support or family outside of the prison walls. It was difficult to comprehend what some of these children had and continue to go through. We will never know. But what struck us in the short time we were there was the immeasurable joy that the balls brought to them all. Having the footballs to play with allowed them, for a short time, to melt into being kids once more and that was a privilege to witness. I hope the (small) gift of the balls provides some sign of hope and love to each of the children locked away inside those walls. If ever there were kids that deserved that, these were them.
Our time out here has, for each of us, put into perspective how fortunate we are to have so much in our own lives – the basics for living (free flowing water, as much food as we want, education and medical supplies, electricity at all times), a network of support, loving friends and family, freedom of speech, and the luxury to live our lives in the way we choose. Many of the people that we have met in Mbeya may lack obvious material possessions but their core values are amazing and what they are truly rich in far outweighs material wealth. They embrace joy, love and respect for others, enjoy a greater freedom of time, demonstrate effortless grace and an unbreakable desire to work hard, to learn and to help others each and every day – values that put many westerners to shame.
As we write, news has just reached us of the meaningless, destructive and violent riots across the city of London. Shocking scenes and an embarrassment to our nation, never have I been more relieved to be far away. The people causing such unprovoked damage in the UK could benefit from spending some time out here to learn and observe the true meaning of respect, pride and a sense of community.
I only hope that when we return to our roots and previous lives, amongst the thousands of photos, video footage and memories we each have, we will never forget all that we have experienced and felt during this Great Football Giveaway. To give more, to take less, to get back to enjoying the simple things in life, to share everything we have with others. Not much is needed to bring joy to someone’s life – a football and a smile have worked time and time again out here.
Far harder to measure is the effect that the balls will have on all those we have met. What does the child walking innocently along an empty dust track with his bike and sugar beet, as he does day in day out, say to his family when he sprints home with his new football surprisingly thrust upon him by some over-zealous Muzungos driving past? The primary school with over 1,000 pupils and not a single football for sports classes – how do they begin to use the 18 new balls they now have overflowing their once bare sports cupboards? The spike in increased school attendance this provokes from kids desperate to return to school if only to play with real footballs, is this sustained over time? How many lives might be saved by innocently reading the two messages neatly emblazoned on the 1,500 footballs provided by Alive & Kicking (‘Malaria Kills – use a mosquito net’ and ‘Play safe – prevent Aids/HIV’)? There are many so questions we have, impossible to list them all here.
As well as sharing with us the biggest smiles we have ever seen, the kids were all quick to realise that you can’t play football on your own. We hope and strongly believe that the balls given out will all be shared and have a wide sphere of influence, far greater than the original pair of hands that tightly grasped each and every ball we hand delivered.
It has been an amazing and humbling experience.
Children are children the world over. Simple pleasures make people smile. A football can do that. Thank you everyone for every ball you have donated. The Great Football Giveaway is great because of you.
Over and out.
Steph, Rachael, Katherine, Becky, Chris and Patch
In Africa it is the height of rudeness to refuse any gifts you are offered. So this evening, amongst the dwindling sacks of footballs and pumps in our trucks, we are also now the proud owners of a tree’s worth of bananas, two sacks of monkey nuts, a small mountain of maize, a bag of paracheches (avocados), two eggs, soda bottles for all of the team, a bounty of red maharagi beans, a vat of (sour) yoghurt, sugar beet and a free lesson on how to eat it (there is no graceful way) and best of all, a live chicken given to us as a gift from the grandfather of our driver, Ernest.
The chicken, newly christened The Colonel, was calm and quiet, a little bemused by his new abode in the boot of the truck and we were careful not to squash him as we continued our football pumping work around him. I’m not sure the Great Chicken Giveaway will ever take off but whatever happens to old Colonel, the addition of livestock certainly added a new dimension to our travels.
The people of Tanzania could not be more generous and hospitable and to everyone who has offered us smiles and gifts, and to all those who have welcomed us into their homes or helped us in any way at all, a huge ‘Asante’.
Almost 1,500 footballs now down, we write from Utengule, an area renowned for some of the best coffee in East Africa. Having spent last night in Tunduma, it feels like we are almost returning home as we near Mbeya once more. The only mention the town of Tunduma, situated on the border of Zambia and Tanzania, warrants in the guide book is being ‘infamous for thieves’. Hmmm. The town, one that clearly never sleeps, was not the most memorable we had frequented and certainly made us appreciate the charm of the previous towns we had visited in the past few weeks.
There was no time to see the much feted (in these parts) Mbozi Meteorite on our travels back from Tunduma today; footballs take priority over seeing the seventh largest known meteorite in the world. And as always, there have been some especially memorable and spontaneous football giveaways, a few highlights including:
– a classroom of children breaking into gospel singing as a thank you for their zawadi (gift)
– a boy falling off his bike in disbelief having been thrown a football from our truck window
– a caring mother running over to reassure her inconsolable child that a (‘lesser spotted in these remote parts’) white muzungu offering a football, whilst unusual, is nothing to be afraid of – and witnessing the child slowly grow in confidence as they hugged their new toy
– watching out of the rear mirror as we drove away, to see the excitement on faces realising we had actually left the ball for them
There’s no doubt the giveaway has made the six of us appreciate how special a brand new football can be. Kicking a ball about is one of life’s most simple pleasures. Discussed at length over dinner tonight, before we arrived in Tanzania, none of us were able to imagine the sheer volume of joy that our footballs would create. Nor can we really know the deeper impact the balls will have on each and every child, school, orphanage or family we have visited. One to mull over further as we try out the local Arabica…
Steph, Katherine, Rachael, Becky, Chris & Patch
Yesterday Patch, our final team member (and professional photographer for RPM) arrived armed with enough audio and video equipment to start up a small production company out here. His very first time to Africa, we were delighted to see him and to have the chance to observe his first impressions of witnessing the brilliant reception we have received with the footballs everywhere in Tanzania.
Briefly back in Mbeya and following another fantastic lunch at the home of our host and ‘man on the ground’ Arthur (more about Arthur and his work on a later blog), we swiftly took Patch on the road to visit his first school, Nsongwi Primary School. Arriving a little late in the day, it turned out that only the pupils who were in detention were still left at the school. We gave the naughty ‘offenders’ a much needed treat from their duties by employing our usual brand of chaos; throwing footballs all over the place, joining in games, starting sing-alongs, chatting Swahili to the kids…
According to Becky, our teacher in the team, detentions don’t really work so we felt all the better to have timed this particular football visit when we did.
The highlight of our day soon followed – a visit to The Olive Branch for Children, a centre located out of town and close to the main train station in Mbeya. The centre is run by Deborah McCracken, a Canadian teacher who visited Tanzania in 2004 for a 3 month placement and never left – after falling heads over heels in love and then marrying her bodyguard, a Masai warrior.
Deborah, who gave birth to her first child only a few weeks ago, has lived out in Mbeya for well over six years taking care of orphans, many of whom have HIV. After a wonderful welcome of songs and some African freestyle dancing, every one of the kids came up to each of us to give us a hug. The biggest hugs ever. Needless to say they were overjoyed with the footballs and it made their week. And our afternoon. The Olive Branch does fantastic work caring for some of the happiest children we have met, despite of the difficult starts that many of these kids have endured in their short lives. Again a big thank you to everyone who has donated money for a football so far, you really have made some very deserving children extremely happy.
1,242 balls successfully given out, we’re back on the road today and heading towards the Tanzania-Zambia border with the two trucks, brilliantly driven by the lovely Ernest and Emmanuel, full to brimming with the remaining balls for the final week.
If the power or internet supply doesn’t conk out once again (we are fairly remote so don’t hold your breath – just uploading this blog has truly been on African time), we are desperately trying to get some photos uploaded onto the blog too…fingers crossed it all works.
Chris, Rachael, Becky, Katherine, Steph & Patch
660 balls already given out, thousands of smiles banked and hundreds of kilometres on the clock, it’s virtually impossible to put into words the experience we are having out in the vast district of Mbeya. Inspiring, humbling, thought-provoking, fun, at times distressing, unforgettable; none of them really quite cover it.
From Dar to Iringa, Mbeya to Tukuyu, we now find ourselves in Kyela, close to the Tanzania-Malawi border. Described unfairly by the Rough Guide as a “hot, mosquito-infested town”, Kyela is certainly hot. And perhaps a little infested. However, it definitely has its charm.
Everyone has welcomed us in ways that are rarely (if ever) seen in the West. All of the many different places we have visited have reacted in wonderful, engaging and quite different ways. There are, however, two places that we have seen in our first week out here that stick in our minds. Both organisations have been designed to cater for disabled children and adults. Disabled people are commonly ostracised by society all over the world and Africa is no different. The two places we have visited that have set out to change that, and from our eyes appear to be having great success, are Neema Crafts in Iringa and Katumba Primary School in Tukuyu.
Neema Crafts was the very first place of this trip that we visited. Set up by English couple Andy & Susan in 2003, the centre is a vocational handicrafts training project for disabled youths. It first began with 3 young deaf people as staff but now employs well over 100 disabled youths and with a new guesthouse opened only last Friday, this number is set to grow and grow. The workshop offers tours, facilities include a book exchange and massage centre and the project’s output (including batiks, pottery, jewellery and paper made from, wait for it, elephant dung…) is all sold in the shop on-site. What is so immediately noticeable about Neema is not just the startling impact it has on the workers’ lives but the positive effect it has on local attitudes towards disabled people.
Katumba School was the last of the schools we visited on Friday. Run by Head Teacher Amos, the school caters for both able-bodied and disabled children. We were privileged to spend a couple of hours with the disabled children. The disabled at the school are loosely categorised into 4 groups – blind, Albino, physically & mentally disabled. As a group, we were blown away. The children were mischievous, unwaveringly caring, great fun and extremely protective of each other. Every child used their own individual strengths to help those around them. The kids, refreshingly unaware of their disabilities, are fully integrated into the able bodied arm of the school once they have passed their exams. The work by Amos and his father and staff is a credit to the town of Tukuyu and certainly left an imprint on our minds long after the dinner bell went and we reluctantly had to leave.
As you would expect, the school children of the 25 Mbeyan schools and 2 orphanages we have visited thus far (and their teachers too) have gone absolutely wild on seeing the footballs. Stampedes are common and wonderful occurrence with pupils seeping out of every classroom, hedge and tea plantation to see what is going on. Virtually every school we have been to, most with hundreds or thousands of pupils on their books, don’t have a single football or netball for their sports’ classes. It is staggering to witness what the small gift of a ball (so generously given by the many donors to TGFG) means to these people.
Photographs of our experiences will follow. We have taken a million pictures already so selecting even a few to share is no easy task. And that is before the final team member, our professional photographer Patch Dolan, joins us next week. Patch will certainly have his work cut out for him in Mbeya; a quite wonderful place filled with beautiful people.
On that note, and as we pack up the trucks to hit the road for Matema, we’ll bid you farewell for now.
Steph, Katherine, Rachael, Becky & Chris
PS. If you would like to buy a football, there is always time. And thank you. More balls, more smiles.
Since you last heard from us we have:
It has been an incredible few days and almost impossible to summarise in words. However, a few of our high points are:
Katherine – singing and dancing with over 1,000 pupils and their teachers.
Becky – throwing footballs from the truck and seeing their disbelief turn to delight, and then seeing the children run off to play football.
Chris – as soon as we have arrived at every school, we seem to cause mayhem as the children suddenly start dancing, shrieking, squealing with delight…. and that’s before they’ve even seen the footballs.
Steph – the sheer joy and unbelievable energy generated by every single football that we have given away so far. And actually making it to Mbeya in the first place – a charming area of the country.
Rachael – giving a football to a boy (aged ~ 11years old) who we met today as we stopped to buy oranges; Arthur found out that he does not go to school and he earns money selling carrier bags. We played football with him amongst the oranges, and left him with a football, but more importantly, a smile on his face.
This morning, we left the town of Mbeya and headed south towards Malawi to the town of Tukuyu. Just arrived, we will be back shortly. With photos.
Rachael, Steph, Katherine, Becky & Chris
PS. If you would like to buy a football, there is always time (click here). And thank you. More balls, more smiles.
Jambo and greetings from Tanzania.
All is well, the sun is shining and the footballs have arrived. This is very good news indeed as it means we can do our great football giveaway in Mbeya as originally planned.
It’s fair to say we’ve had substantial problems getting our footballs through the Tanzania/Kenya border over the past few months. This is not uncommon in the history of Great Football Giveaways. A proverbial “Welcome to Africa” – but with that welcome comes absolutely no guarantee the balls would arrive in time for this project so we are especially chuffed that the 50 sacks of footballs finally arrived, from Nairobi’s Alive and Kicking base, earlier today. Thank you to Elias, all at SOS Village and Paul for all their hard work, tireless dedication and effort to help make it all happen.
Having just seen the footballs unloaded safely into the safe haven at the fantastic SOS Village, we’re enjoying a bottle of the local brew in the lowly lit (power-cut-stricken, not uncommon) Wista’s Inn in Dar. Bliss. It has been fantastic to meet the locals, all extremely helpful, and we are trying our best to learn Swahili; special mention to Chris, Rachael and Becky on this front who I suspect may be fluent by the end of the fortnight. Mzuri sana.
Tomorrow morning we begin our journey out of Dar es Salaam (not the capital of Tanzania although everyone assumes it, me included – Dodoma is in fact the real McCoy). The plan is to travel down to Iringa, about a 9 hour journey, and then base ourselves for the evening there at the Lutheran Centre before we set off for Mbeya the following day.
We will be in touch from Mbeya with news of our adventures as well as to report where the first football(s) of the giveaway ends up. There is no wrong or right place to distribute the balls across the continent of Africa (clearly with the exception of famine-struck areas). Wherever we go, we are expecting beautiful countryside, welcoming locals and for the kids to welcome us with the biggest smiles we’ve ever seen.
If you would like to buy a football, there is still time (click here). And thank you. More balls, more smiles.
Lala Salama – good night for now, we will be back.
Steph, Katherine, Becky, Chris & Rachael
The Great Football Giveaway Blog
Today was yet another extraordinary day. Ever since I knew we would be staying at a town in northern Rwanda that borders the Congo (DRC) I have felt a compelling urge to take our project across the border.
For those that don’t know, there is an ongoing war in DRC that involves about 20 different militia groups. Many of them like the FDLR are linked to those that committed the genocide in Rwanda 15 years ago, whose soldiers fled into Congo to re-group in order to finish the genocide against their Tutsi brothers. It is an ugly and brutal war – one of the worst ever in Africa and it rages every day.
I have always said and believed that no kid should be denied the chance to enjoy their childhood, and that sport can play a vital role in this. What we have seen in Rwanda has in many ways been a story of hope and optimism – that the country and its people now share such a positive outlook, is an extraordinary testament not only to the current government but more importantly to the ability of mankind to heal, rebuild and start all over again.
So when we find ourselves less than a km from the Congolese border, where the picture is so very different, one can’t help but feel that it would be wrong if we didn’t take our project into DRC.
I have made many decisions with The Great Football Giveaway that have moved the project in different directions. But whether or not we should enter into a country where there is such turmoil, is one that could not be taken lightly.
We spoke to many people about this and eventually found a reliable team that could help us over the border. If you drive a Rwandan car into DRC you will be stopped at every checkpoint, so it was great when we managed to arrange a team of local Congolese to meet us on the other side. We had arranged for them to take us to an orphan centre we had heard about outside Goma, and to a school in one of the city’s poorest suburbs.
The truth is, hopping across the border is not that difficult. Many people do it every day. But one of the big problems was how to get our balls across. No way you could just take boxes of balls without the relevant paperwork (and paperwork means headaches, bribes and everything we rebele against with The GFG).
We knew that if we were searched we would at best lose the balls, and at worst be questioned about who we are and what we are doing. So myself Bob & Jason packed a modest sized day-bag each, full of balls (with a dirty old pair of socks and pants on top in case they did a quick search) and set off for DRC. Steve and Kelly stayed behind in Rwanda so we could keep a point of contact at all times, while Phil had the toughest job of all which was to try and get across some cameras so we could film in DRC.
We all went into this with our eyes open, but knew that if we could at least help put some smiles on children who endure such daily hardship, that it was worth while.
There was a nervy moment at the border crossing as I was called back by an official, just as is looked as though we were through. My heart jumped a beat, but fortunately all he wanted to know was if we wanted a taxi on the other side. Heart continued beating. In the end, we crossed the border with our bags unsearched and met with our Congolese contact.
Unsurprisingly there is huge military presence in DRC. Army attack helicopters fly overhead, UN and aid agency vehicles are everywhere. We drove through some back streets through a market, where we had the unfortunate experience of seeing a man set on and beaten by the side of the road for what appeared to be a petty shoplifting offence.
We drove to a desperately poor area, where people had been forced to build on craggy ground that remained after a major volcano eruption had buried the village underneath it. Every square inch was gnarly and rocky. If it wasn’t so populated you would say it was completely un-inhabitable. Had I walked barefoot on it, within minutes my feet would be cut to the bone.
In the midst of this was a small orphanage – home to sixteen children rescued from the war. Their hut was little more than a canvass sheet. The floor inside was the same rocky ground as outside. Six of them slept to a bed. Since starting The Great Football Giveaway I have seen many things, but nothing like this.
I have had doubts in the past about the potential inappropriateness of what we are doing – that of course there are so many other things that a place like this needs before footballs. However something very special happened. The children started to play. Their eyes light up and they were full of laughter and cheers. These were troubled children, many of them had witnessed the death of their own parents, yet here they were playing and having fun. The doctor that was with us talked about the importance of these sort of activities and how essential they are to the healing process. Of course we know that footballs are not the solution, we have never claimed that, but I know that in that moment alone they helped the children to forget some of the past and think only of the present. And in that moment, the present was not such a bad place.
If anyone is looking for a challenging project to support, then I can put you in touch with this orphanage. The guys that run it are extraordinary people. There are countless stories like this in countries like DRC and Rwanda, but this one made a particular impression on all of us.
The nearby school we visited was also a very special place. The reaction from the children was reassuringly familiar. Two teams (comprised of both boys and girls) played a game of football in their rocky school courtyard, with the added motivation that every time they scored a goal they won a ball for their school. I’m sure the defence wasn’t quite as tight at the back as it should have been, but I’m told 8-6 is a common scoreline in the Congo.
And no sooner than our day had begun, it was over. Of course we wanted to stay and go to more schools. Or to smuggle more balls across the border and repeat it again and again. But a plan was a plan and we stuck to it, and back we went to Rwanda, knowing that we have pushed the boundaries of The Great Football Giveaway.
I would love to have spent more time there, of course, and who knows maybe this is something we will arrange for the future. But for now I am happy that we did what we did and that tonight we can look across the border knowing that at least there are a few children who can wake up tomorrow excited about one of life’s most simple pleasures – the simple fun of kicking a ball about.
Tomorrow we have arranged a big HIV awareness football tournament back in Ruhengeri with seven groups from seven schools. I’m not quite sure how it will all pan out but we have the city’s main stadium at our disposal and hundreds of balls to give-away, so it should draw a big crowd. We have teamed up with a local HIV awareness specialist who is central to the day’s success, so please keep fingers crossed.
All along the way we have been furiously visiting schools (we must be nearing 100 by now), orphan centres, and as many other projects that work with kids as we can.
It’s a big day (again) tomorrow so I’d better go now. And it’s been a long day. I will try and do another update in a week or so.
To be honest it’s almost impossible to believe what happened today.
I have always said about The Great Football Giveaway that children are children, no matter what their circumstances and that kids just want to run around kicking and throwing balls about, having fun. Today in Rwanda, we really put that to the test.
I have told very few people that one of our big ambitions from our project in Rwanda is to try and find a way to help child soldiers, for fear that it was too big a challenge given its sensitive nature. There can be nothing in life more tragic in life than stripping a child of its childhood and replacing it with a gun. But here we are in Rwanda, a country where children are captured from refugee camps in the Congo and forced to fight with rebel militias in bush warfare. Some of those children risk death to escape and manage to return to their native Rwanda, where they undergo a programme of demobilisation and re-integration at a secure purpose built centre.
We have been in negotiations with this centre for a long time and today we held a game of football between a team of former child soldiers from this centre, who just a few weeks ago were fighting in the Congo, and a team of local street children.
There is no doubt that there were clear signs of trauma with many of the children. But our objective was to help them with their reintegration programmes into Rwandan society, using sport as a way of bringing them together with other children. It is understandable that many Rwandans carry much fear and prejudice towards children like these given the history of the genocide here in Rwanda. So to see them playing together as children, leaving behind them in those moments when they were absorbed in the game, some of the trauma from the past and fears for the future, was of course so poignant.
There were moments in the game when I almost forgot what I was watching. It was a kick around in the park – one bunch of mates against another. It was football stripped of all its money, marketing and celebrity.
We were privileged enough to speak at length with some of the children. They told us how they had been fighting for the FDLR (extremist Hutu militia wing responsible for the death of so many Tutsi during and since the genocide) and how they had escaped an returned to Rwanda. We met children as young as twelve who just weeks before had been on patrol in DRC (Congo). One child told me how five of them tried to escape but only three made it to Rwanda alive.
But here they were, right here today cheering when they scored a goal, enjoying a small moment of what life intended childhood to be like.
I make no over-claims about today. We have made a very small step towards helping these children, but at least it was a step in the right direction. The RDRC (the centre responsible for re-integrating Rwandan child soldiers) are keen to develop their sports programmes following the success of today, so that has to be a good thing. In time there may also be the opportunity to take some of the former child soldiers out with us when we distribute balls in the villages, which I passionately believe is an experience that can touch the soul (we saw that from the effect and reactions of our war-hardened driver in Angola on one of our recent projects.)
The street children who played against the ex child soldiers were all orphans. Their community centre is a wonderful place (somewhere we have flooded with balls), run by an extraordinary man, where any child can walk in and receive food and accommodation in desperate times. To see these kids come together as a team was fantastic. A true testament to the power of sport to unite.
I would like to thank those people who recently donated to this project – the recent flurry of support allowed us to hire the vehicle that brought the child soldiers to the match, as well as provide both teams and supporters with a well deserved hearty meal afterwards.
It is things like this that make The Great Football Giveaway what it is. I still believe that the simple act of giving balls to children and seeing their faces light up is a beautiful thing, and if in each country we can also look to support those people and organisations who care for so many vulnerable children, then long may this project continue.
If you have read this far, then you probably want to know the score. It was neck & neck at half time, 1-1. But the street kids came strong in the second half, while the child soldiers, though fitter, struggled to deal with some of the Brazilian style passing of the street kids, and the match ended 4-1 up to the street kids.
All in all ‘the boyz done good, they gave 110 percent and left nofing in tha locka room. Magic. But really Geof, football was the winner’ (I believe this is technical speak for ‘it was a good game of football’).
One of our team, Jason, refereed the match (he drew the short straw). He has never done this before (and his friends reading this will laugh out loud) but he did an incredible job. A few dodgy decisions including giving a penalty that was clearly a corner, but hey, that’s football whether you’re down at Hackney Marshes, or out here in Rwanda.
Tomorrow we head off to another rural area where we are meeting an extraordinary man who dedicates his life to teaching children about the perils of malaria, Africa’s biggest killer. He doesn’t know it yet, but I have a plan. We are going to head into the rural areas with him and start giving away footballs, as per normal. If there’s one thing that is certain this will attract a large crowd of children. This will give him an opportunity to talk to the kids (who otherwise would never attend something like this) about how to prevent getting malaria and what to do if you get it. To encourage the kids to engage in what he has to say, we are will offer that every child who asks a question about malaria, will be given a free ball.
If this works then we will give him lots more balls to continue his programme long after we are gone. Who knows what will happen, but if we can continue to come up with innovative ways to use sport as a force for good then The Great Football Giveaway will grow from strength to strength.
I know I promised not to bombard you with bloggy emails etc, but after today I just had to find a way to tell you all what happened. It was a very special day and I wanted to thank you for helping us make it happen.
We still have about 1,800 balls to give away, so that’s a lot of smiles in the back of our jeep ready to go. Can’t wait.
All the best & thanks for all your support.
