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.