Para-Soccer Brings Hope to Nigerian Polio Survivors

Nigeria has recently reached the milestone of being polio-free for a year, however, the disease has left thousands of survivors handicapped. Although there is not a definite number on polio survivors in Nigeria, the Nigerian Association of Polio Survivors has almost a million members.

In a culture with little community support for polio survivors, para-soccer has brought joy and purpose into the lives of Nigerian polio survivors.

Musbahu Lawan Didi, a polio survivor, originally created para-soccer in 1988. It was called ground handball at the time. After the Nigeria Association for the Disabled (N.S.A.S) heard about the game, it was promoted and expanded internationally.

The Women Federation of World Peace (WFWP) brought attention to the sport as well when the organization helped set up matches for the teams.

The first lady of Adamawa State, Dr. Halima Nyako, also helped in spreading the name of para-soccer. She sponsored the compilation of the rules and regulations into a booklet.

Slowly but surely the sport began to build. The Federal Ministry of Sports and Social Development officially approved the Para-soccer Federation of Nigeria to be a national sport federation in 2006.

Now the sport has international leagues in Ghana, Niger and Cameroon as well as national leagues within Nigeria. There are more than 24 state associations involved in para-soccer.

Through para-soccer, survivors who would otherwise be begging on the streets are able to make some money to help support their families. “Para-soccer has been an effective alternative to polio victims begging for alms to survive,” Didi said in a speech during the National Para-Soccer Championship in 2013.

Para-soccer is also being used as a tool to spread awareness about polio and the importance of vaccinations. Every year on World Polio Day there is a national para-soccer championship.

– Iona Brannon

Sources: Al Jazeera, Bloomberg Business, NBF, Parasoccer Nigeria, Reuters, Time
Photo: Google Images

Arsenal Football Club Supports Save The Children Challenge

Arsenal Football Club has teamed up with Save The Children to support efforts to end extreme poverty, inequality and climate change with the #DizzyGoals Challenge.

In a video sanctioned by action/2015, another organization dedicated to these goals, two players, one coach and one mascot participated in the challenge. The athletes can be seen putting their hand on a soccer ball and running around it in a circle—similar to the dizzy bat game. Once each player completed several circles, they were to take a shot at a goal.

Each of the soccer players fell in the grass on the soccer field, making the video and challenge comical and fun-filled. Joining soccer and charity together, Save the Children and Arsenal have worked together since 2011, raising more than one million euros for the charity’s important goals.

The #DizzyGoals Challenge was created to promote awareness for the action/2015 goals and campaign, Global Goals. All organizations ask that participants share their dizzy goal in a video on social networking sites.

The power of social networks is a large part of the Global Goals campaign. Several organizations, including Save the Children and action/2015, have joined together to help end extreme and unsafe circumstances around the world. Global Goals is one campaign that asks followers to upload videos and pictures to their social media profiles.

The objective of these organizations is to raise as much awareness as possible so that these goals can be met this year. The Global Goals website said that these goals will only be accomplished if all people are clued in.

“If the goals are going to work, everyone needs to know about them. You can’t convince world leaders to do what needs to be done if you don’t know what you’re convincing them to do. If the goals are famous, they won’t be forgotten,” the website said.

Global Goals also gave motivating advice to readers and philanthropists about change and humanitarian aspirations.
“We can be the first generation to end extreme poverty, the most determined generation in history to end injustice and inequality and the last generation to be threatened by climate change,” Global Goals said.

In accordance with this notion, other athletes have stepped up to promote this cause. Gareth Bale, a professional soccer player, posted his #DizzyGoals video on Twitter. The athlete shared this tweet with his followers: “Quality time with my mates filming my #DizzyGoals for @TheGlobalGoals.”

Usain St. Leo Bolt, a famous Olympian, also shared a video of him doing the challenge on Twitter. The runner can be seen laughing in the video, promoting the challenges ultimate goal—to make people smile.

Many more athletes in all levels of play have participated in this challenge, showing that sports is one way to bring people together and to promote change.

Global Goals said that this month, Sept. 25, 193 world leaders will meet to commit to change the world by 2030. They want to end extreme poverty, tackle climate change and fix inequality and injustice to make the world a better place.

To learn more about this important cause, visit globalgoals.org. To view #DizzyGoals challenges, search the hashtag.

– Fallon Lineberger

Sources: Global Goals, Look to the Stars, Twitter 1, Twitter 2
Photo: Pixabay

Where Soccer and Global Poverty Innovation Collide

Soccer unites people. It is one of the few things that crosses social, geographic, ethnic and religious boundaries. It is widely understood and played by many. This is why Uncharted Play tapped into the love of soccer to make a difference in the world. They believed in the power of play.

Uncharted Play was founded in 2011 with the strong belief that through the pursuit of play and happiness, they could create something that “would show the world how play could be a tangible tool for inspiring social invention.”

The two founders of Uncharted Play, Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman, met during their junior year at Harvard University, where they teamed up to create the SOCCKET as a class project.

The SOCCKET is a soccer ball with an LED light and a plug off the side. It has a mechanism on the inside that converts kinetic energy to electricity, which powers an LED light for three hours after just thirty minutes of play.

Uncharted Play’s first large-scale success was in Mexico in March 2013, where the largest television station, Televisa, gave out 150 SOCCKETs for free at a ceremony.

However, the first big problem that users ran into with the SOCCKETs was the invention’s low durability. Uncharted Play took this into account and began making improvements. Matthews said, “We’re not Nike. We’re not Walmart… We’re a group of eight people in an apartment in New York City.” She later added, “Things may not always go right, but we are always, always, always… trying to do our best and doing it for the bigger picture.”

Since the creation of the SOCCKET in 2008 and the establishment of Uncharted Play in 2011, they have created a second product—energy-storing jump ropes—and have improved on the first.

Uncharted Play recognized that nearly 1.2 billion people live without electricity and sought to find a solution that not only reduced this number, but also increased happiness. The SOCCKETs are used to light homes and help children do their homework, and most importantly, it gets the kids out to play. Here, soccer and global poverty truly do collide—with positive results.

– Hannah Resnick

Sources: Smithsonian, Public Radio International, Uncharted Play, World Bank
Photo: Development Crossing

Grassroot Soccer Campaign Scores in World Cup

With somewhere between 20.3 million and 25.4 million viewers and fans, there is no better stage to raise awareness and funds for an organization than the World Cup. And that is exactly what World Cup Champion Christen Press and her teammates set out to do during the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Prior to the Women’s World Cup, Christen Press partnered with Grassroot Soccer’s campaign DreamBIG. The entire US women’s national team supported the campaign that works with youth in Africa to improve health services, build leadership and empower a stronger tomorrow.

The organization, Grassroot Soccer, uses the power of soccer to reach people in developing countries and fight against HIV. Their mission is simple: “educate, inspire and mobilize young people to stop the spread of HIV.”

By using a tool such as soccer, offer considered a universal language in its own way, Grassroot Soccer has the ability to influence countless youth and adults in developing countries that need both the education over HIV and the leadership development to put a stop to it.

Since 2002, when Grassroot Soccer was founded, they are reached over one point two million people in 40 countries. Each year the organization continues to impact approximately 100,000 people in HIV stricken areas.

Fittingly, Press and the rest of the US Women’s World Cup took it upon themselves to support the organizations movement DreamBIG; a campaign that was created for the World Cup. This specific campaign will provide funding for mentors and health services to be sent to southern Africa, thus allowing them to “live healthier lives so that they can DreamBIG.”

Over the duration of the 2015 Women’s World Cup, DreamBIG raised $87,500 thanks to the support from the U.S. women’s team. The money raised from the tournament alone will provide training, education and the chance to build leadership skills through soccer for 3,500 youth between the ages of 15 and 18.

The organization is obviously doing good work, but of all the sports, why soccer? Why a sport at all? The answer is quite simple. Soccer has and does bring people together unlike any other sport. As the largest sport in the world, it is something every nation can connect to.

Soccer fosters skills in youth that help them later lead a better, healthier life. On top of that, for youth living in large cities with high crime, drug and violence rates, sports like soccer, and organizations like Grassroot Soccer encourage youth to keep off the streets and active in healthy choices.

The world of soccer is making even larger impacts than that though.

As foreign aid for education dropped, the United Nations asked the International Association Football Federation, otherwise known as FIFA, to “institute a 0.4 percent educational tax on broadcasting and sponsorship revenues” for the 2010 Men’s World cup and the five European leagues until 2015.

Within those five years, the point four percent educational tax generated over $200 million that will be used to provide basic education to two million children.

Building personal skills and improving education through soccer is tremendous, but the power of soccer is on the verge of growing even more. A new soccer ball that utilizes the energy of kick is in the process of being tested and made available.

That sounds great, but what does it mean? It means that the energy of impact when kicking the ball would be saved within the ball. That energy could later be used to power a variety of objects anywhere from a light bulb to an appliance.

Between skills, education and energy, Grassroot Soccer is onto a new type of aid work that will bring people from all nations together to create a prosperous future. With the help of donations, volunteers and groups like the US Women’s National soccer team, Grassroots Soccer will continue to improve the lives of millions of youth.

– Katherine Wyant

Sources: SB Nation, World Bank, Grassroot Soccer
Photo: World Bank

Underaged African Footballers Forced into Contracts Abroad

According to a BBC investigation, this past February, 23 underage footballers from Africa were imported from their respective countries to play in Laos. The investigation claims that Champasak United, the club in question, had planned to develop the players and then capitalize on their sale or trade. IDSEA Champasak Asia African Football Academy is the unregistered academy partnered with the club in Laos. The players are mostly from Liberia, but also Sierra Leone and Ghana. Some of the players in question were even as young as 14 years old.

FIFA regulations restrict recruitment of players under 18 years old to clubs or academies.

Multiple players have reported that the work conditions were rigorous and their living quarters were overcrowded. Players stayed in dimly lit rooms and slept on old worn out mattresses.

One of the players, Kesselly Kamara of Liberia stated, “It’s hard to live in a place with no windows. It made sleeping very difficult, because you are thinking about your life.”

The faux contracts the players signed claimed to provide a monthly salary of $200, living accommodations and three meals per day. These provisions were not provided as frequently as promised or in most cases, not at all.

Pressure from FIFA released 17 of the players from their contracts. However, six players have decided to remain at the academy and take their chances.

Since Liberia does not have a football academy of their own, the young players were desperate to develop their skills. Often promised a celebrity status and financial riches, young players are eager to begin their careers and provide for their families. This is unfortunately the case in many African countries.

The former Captain of Champasak United, Alex Karmo, is a Liberian himself who has since left the club. From the perspective of a young Liberian player, the absence of their own academy coupled with the recruitment and promises of a fellow countrymen would make an easy decision. These agents can make anywhere between $3,000-10,000 per player.

It would, however, be a serious oversight to assume that this practice occurs only in these West African countries or on the African continent.

“Today we have criminal activists threatening world football and the young players, so it’s important to work together. Fifa will have to be on top of this battle,” says Jean-Claude Mbvounim. Mbvounim is the founder of “Foot Solidaire”, an anti-trafficking organization advocating for young players in Africa.

The organization estimates that as many as 15,000 young African footballers as young as ten years old are trafficked out of and within the continent. He states that one of the main difficulties is simply determining and distinguishing what is professional, amateur and recreational levels.

Foot Solidaire currently offers advocacy services to young players in Africa and is beginning to operate in the same function in France. It is planned to be known as the “European Network Foot Solidaire” and expand to other countries in Europe such as Spain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Italy.

The efforts of his organization have certainly gained traction and publicity internationally. In April of last year, perennial powerhouse FC Barcelona was found by FIFA to have violated rules regarding players under 18 and were in turn sanctioned and fined. While the severity of cases involving underage players cannot always be compared, the fundamental principle of protecting the young footballers reigns paramount.

– Frasier Petersen

Sources: BBC 1, Friday Magazine, BBC 2, Play the Game