If you don’t know about Street Child World Cup, let me tell you about these wonderful people. The Street Child organisation had its first event at the South African World Cup in 2010 and things started to happen. South Africa made changes to the whole matter of street children – and all to the good. Life is wonderful, when you make a difference.
In the world of travel and tourism, the street children are often hidden away and never ever mentioned – the countries’ governments do not usually understand nor address the situation. The children are not worthy, they have no official identification, they do not exist. In putting the teams together, the Street Child World Cup (SCWC) team works with local charities and government agencies in each country. This gives encouragement to improve the way they deal with homeless children, sometimes from seeing them as criminal vagrants to recognising them as human beings who need support. For the first time, often, they are registered as citizens so they can be given a passport. And the needs of the wider homeless community are spotlighted as a result.
These children on the road to Rio 2014 come from 19 different countries; there are both boys and girls teams. All they want to say is ‘I Am Somebody’. The countries are El Salvador, USA, Zimbabwe, Argentina, England, Mozambique, Nicaragua, South Africa, Burundi, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Liberia, Brazil, Egypt, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and the Philippines. Have a look at the SCWC website to find out more.
I am very proud and privileged to have been included in the volunteer comms team going to Rio – so lucky, I’ll get to make a difference. All the volunteers met up at a weekend training session at Gilwell House in Epping Forest last week. So inspiring, so many fabulous people.
Should you wish to make a difference too, I’m trying to raise £2000 towards the central fund, it costs about £1,000 per child to get them there – and it has such an impact on their lives – this is the world cup that matters. Please donate here justgiving.com/lynnerosie – thank you.
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All the best for your trip Lynne – such a great cause :-)