World Cup for African Kids – A Soccer Ball, A Gift of Play

June 16, 2010 | Filed under: Blog | Posted by: urfblog

Honor a dream of underpriviled kids with a soccer ball – donate $20 to give a gift of play.

It’s soccer excitement all over the world, and what makes it really special this time around, is that it is played on the African soil. When I was growing up in my village, there was no family with a television; so we had to walk about 30 minutes to family in two villages away to watch world cup and others walked a lot longer distances. Soccer is not just a game; it has the force to unite people, communities, and nations. To the African child, soccer is like second-nature. The first game kids learn is kicking the ball. However, to many of them kicking a ‘real soccer ball’ remains just a dream. But thanks for the African ingenuity, kids scrap anything at their disposal to make a soccer ball -from plastic bags, rags tobanana fiber. They don’t have the luxury of driving to a store to pick up a soccer ball; it’s just one of those homemade gadgets.

This world cup season, we invite you to partner with URF to honor the dream of hundreds of underprivileged Ugandan kids – the dream of kicking a real soccer ball. Our goal is to give two soccer balls to 50 schools in rural villages – one ball is for the girls and another for the boys. These have on average 600 kids in each. You are giving a gift of play to over 30,000 kids.

A gift of $20 will buy a soccer ball boys or girls at one school
A gift of $40 will buy two soccer balls for bother girls and boys at one school.
A gift of $2,000 will buy 100 balls for 50 schools.

Any donation of $5, $10, or $15 will help us make these dream a reality. Give whatever you can. You can make check payable to Uganda Rural Fund and note “for soccer balls” and mail to:

Uganda Rural Fund
12829 River Road
Richmond, VA 23238

OR you can donate ONLINE at http://www.ugandaruralfund.org

For those in Uganda, you can give the donation to Charles at 0703-145230 or email me.

Those who may want to donate actual soccer balls, we will consider the offer only if you can help us to ship them to Uganda.

Thank you very much for honoring the dreams of these kids. Amidst all the tough situations they go through, a gift of play is a special moment of joy in a day of an African child.