"Alive and Kicking"
A group of boys interrupted their game to show us their ball. Dennis, the second boy in, made the ball himself out of plastic shopping bags and bits of string her collected in the trash.In Kenya, as in most of Africa, football is the common passion of both young and old. Despite this love for the game, most people can not afford to purchase a ball. For many children in Kenya, the closest they can get to living out their dreams of being a "great footballer" is in the epic matches along dusty roads or in open fields played with home-made balls of plastic bags tied together with everything from rags to used bits of wire. The Solid Rock Youth Group from First Baptist Church, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, wanted to do something kind for the children of the Eastleigh Community Centre and raised funds to buy the school new footballs.
Erica and I had the joy today of distributing several footballs to the students at the Eastleigh Community Centre. The footballs were hand-stitched from local leather by a "not for profit" charity called Alive & Kicking Kenya. This UK based charity recognizes the role of sport in the development of young people and strives to address the chronic shortage of balls in Africa by "reviving the art" of making tough, durable, repairable and good quality balls in Kenya. The balls are sold at cost and 100% of the proceeds go back into the lives of Kenyans. The Alive & Kicking Project works with communities to raise awareness and tackle the spread of preventable illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria.
This standard eight (eighth grade) girl received two footballs as captain of her girl's football team -- to the cheers of the crowd of girls around her.
A group of students showing off their football skills!
In order to help keep things fair, the boys were given "white footballs" and the girls were given "yellow footballs". While the girls were off enjoying their balls, the boy's football league gathered to receive theirs. They wanted us to share a LOUD Asanta Sana! to the Solid Rock Youth -- thank you all so much!!!!Labels: Eastleigh Community Centre, Football, Somali Ministry
posted by four_kennys @ Wednesday, May 28, 2008
4 comments
4 Comments:
Thank you so much for all the updates.It is great to see the faces of the children enjoying their balls. Continue the good work that the Lord has given you to do. Love and Prayers.
Donnie and Bev
This is great! Kudos to the Solid Rock Youth Group.
Are there other projects of this type that you could suggest? Perhaps other youth groups would be interested.
Linda
The children and youth at the Eastleigh Community Centre are loving the new balls. We are working on some other sports projects at the moment with the School's headmaster, Jackson, and hope to present the ideas to CBM this summer. It would be very cool for youth groups in Canada to be able to partner with similar youth ministries both in Eastleigh and with our national partner churches throughout Kenya.
A football may not seem like much to us, but it is a very big deal for kids who have never had anything "new" in their lives.
Erica and I were thrilled by Dennis's appreciation as he gave us his hand made football (seen in the photograph). It smells of the trash heep from where he made it and of the Eastleigh dust, but it is a treasure indeed.
The boys like soccer I guess
From:Tristan Kenny
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