In January 2010 I had the opportunity to visit for several days with Cesar Garcia, the love.fútbol coordinator on the ground in Guatemala. The work they are doing there is incredible--I was able to attend the inauguration of their most recently constructed pitch in the town of Xejuyu (in the Solola department) and it was truly a beautiful and unforgettable experience to witness how the community came together around a common goal of building a safe place to play for the kids. This project deserves every penny that they get if that visit was any indication; it convinced me 100% of their ability to create real / meaningful change in peoples' lives and I will continue to support them for many years to come!
I watch the videos and enjoy the great things they are doing at Love.Futbol. In the voting process, I looked at the other groups, but this truly was the best.
This competition is so important to love.fútbol! Winning this funding is pivotal to our current project in Juil, El Quiché, Guatemala, as well as to our ability to move forward with projects all over the country in the future.
There is such incredible passion for soccer and profound need for safe, accessible places for youth to play. With love.fútbol you can help make a difference.
THANK YOU for all your support! Please spread the word as far and wide as possible.
--
¡Esta competencia es tan importante para nosotros en love.fútbol! Ganar esta financiación es crucial para nuestro proyecto actual en Juil, El Quiché, Guatemala y es clave para nuestra habilidad para avanzar en el futuro con proyectos en otras partes del país.
Hay una pasión increíble para el fútbol y una profunda necesidad por lugares seguros y accesibles donde puedan jugar los jóvenes. Con love.fútbol, Uds. pueden ayudar a causar un impacto positivo.
¡GRACIAS por todo su apoyo! Por favor, pasen nuestra información por todos los rincones posibles.
Quiero agradecer a love.futbol por todo lo que hecho por mi pais, transformando la vida de muchas comunidades pobres de Guatemala, y proporcionar ideas a nuestra gente para saber que ellos pueden transformar sus vidas y hacer de ellas mejores comunidades atraves del deporte y la inspiracion; ojala que pueda love.futbol seguir transformando la vida de muchos seres humanaos en centro america y el resto del mundo.
Soy costarricense, vivo en Guatemala y soy una testigo fidedigna y ocular del excelente trabajo hecho por love.futbol en este lindo país Centroamericano, he visto del beneficio que le brinda a los niños y niñas de las comunidades rurales, indígenas y marginadas donde se construyen estas pequeñas canchas o plazitas para ejecutar el futbol, además cuando se está en los proceso de gestión y construcción de los proyectos he percibido el buen ánimo, colaboración, entrega y corazón con que trabajan en equipo las personas tanto hombres y mujeres como infantes de las comunidades beneficiadas juntos con las autoridades y el personal de love.futbol de Guatemala, puedo certificar que estas personas admiran, creen y aman love.futbol por el cumplimiento y cambio dado a sus lugares de vivencia. Dios siga prosperando a los gestores y administradores de love.futbol para seguir dando progreso a estos infantes y asi ayudar en evitar direcciones equivocadas en sus vidas. Exitos.
This is a fantastic organization working for a critical cause. While LF works in Guatemala, there is a demand for their product all over the world. I recently traveled to Liberia, where I saw kids playing on dirt fields littered with broken glass. In spite of the circumstances, they were joyful to be playing the game they loved.
Giving kids an alternative outlet and the opportunity to develop through sports is key to developing the rule of law, my own area of work, as it can ensure that youth do not fall into the easy trap of crime.
Few people know love.fútbol began in Morocco. That's a soccer passionate country – though, as we know, there are many. At the right hour, it would seem children play on every street corner. However, it was in one narrow alley-way, in a town off the map – near Cascades d'Ouzoud, if you know it – where love.fútbol actually came about.
It was a 4 on 4 pickup game, with the most senior player no older than 10. In a small opening of the alley, roughly 8 feet wide by 25 feet long, was their pitch. Running lengthwise from top to bottom of their space and splitting their two rock goal posts at either end was a canal about a foot wide and deep, and with hard cement corners.
The children jumped back and forth effortlessly over the gap, and without looking. Their cracked plastic ball still rolled relatively true over the cobblestone – chipping it back and forth over as they played. Clearly, they'd grown up there. The canal was inherent to their game.
Youth determination and innovation to play was always something quite beautiful to me. I'd been fortunate to grow up around all types of makeshift soccer in many other parts of the world – trees or tires as goals, crooked spaces, slanted fields, irregular, imperfect, but still somehow, quite fine places to play this simple game.
However, there was something striking about this scene in the alley. The kids played hard and the inevitable slip, trip and fall into this gully would be harsh. It was beyond what I respected as the imperfect beauty of soccer at the grassroots level. It was simply not a safe place to play.
Going on five years later I've seen much worse challenges and learned of many crazier stories than of the one in Morocco. Children play barefoot in trash dumps, over trash, glass and rocky land every day. They dash between speeding cars to cross the eight lane N2 highway outside of the Khayelitsha Township in Capetown, South Africa, and then hundreds of them play for miles along the highway median. They play clandestine soccer on prohibited land when there is enough moonlight in Zacapa, Guatemala.
Just recently, I learned that Maicon and Michel Bastos, two current stars for the Brazilian National Team who played in the World Cup last month, each had a brother hit and killed by a car while playing soccer in the streets.
Around the world children are fighting to play the Beautiful Game. Every entry into this competition is a testament to the power of soccer to change lives. It begins with a safe place to play.
Check out our facebook page for photos! We are excited and honored to be working with such a great community to provide a safe place for future generations to play the game we all love!
Want to see where your vote is going? Check out photos in the post above of our seventh field, currently under construction in the community of Juil, and watch the video directly below to see a profile of our eighth partner community, San Antonio Palopó (featured at the 5:45 mark of the film).
Your votes are making these projects a reality! Spread the love and help us provide a right to the game to at-risk youth in these underserved communities!
I recently had the pleasure of attending a luv.futball organized activity in New York City and was blown away by the amount of time, work and passion that these young professional men and women have dedicated to this organization. Their work has clearly paid off and I hope to see this initiative flourish in the coming months.
Thank you everyone for your votes, comments and feedback over the course of this competition! We are pleased and honored to finish in second place! Congrats to the Grand Prize winners, Rumah Cemara Football Program, as well as all the other prize winners and competitors!
Comments
In January 2010 I had the opportunity to visit for several days with Cesar Garcia, the love.fútbol coordinator on the ground in Guatemala. The work they are doing there is incredible--I was able to attend the inauguration of their most recently constructed pitch in the town of Xejuyu (in the Solola department) and it was truly a beautiful and unforgettable experience to witness how the community came together around a common goal of building a safe place to play for the kids. This project deserves every penny that they get if that visit was any indication; it convinced me 100% of their ability to create real / meaningful change in peoples' lives and I will continue to support them for many years to come!
I watch the videos and enjoy the great things they are doing at Love.Futbol. In the voting process, I looked at the other groups, but this truly was the best.
Thanks for your support, Mike! We are honored to be finalists in this competition, and are looking forward to the next three weeks!
This competition is so important to love.fútbol! Winning this funding is pivotal to our current project in Juil, El Quiché, Guatemala, as well as to our ability to move forward with projects all over the country in the future.
There is such incredible passion for soccer and profound need for safe, accessible places for youth to play. With love.fútbol you can help make a difference.
THANK YOU for all your support! Please spread the word as far and wide as possible.
--
¡Esta competencia es tan importante para nosotros en love.fútbol! Ganar esta financiación es crucial para nuestro proyecto actual en Juil, El Quiché, Guatemala y es clave para nuestra habilidad para avanzar en el futuro con proyectos en otras partes del país.
Hay una pasión increíble para el fútbol y una profunda necesidad por lugares seguros y accesibles donde puedan jugar los jóvenes. Con love.fútbol, Uds. pueden ayudar a causar un impacto positivo.
¡GRACIAS por todo su apoyo! Por favor, pasen nuestra información por todos los rincones posibles.
love.futbol's idea is simple, but the impact that it has on thousands of children who don't have a safe place to play is astounding.
They catalyze the community, help them construct a field and through this process, they create hope where there was once despair through football.
They really have a global vision with a replicable model. Hats off to love.futbol.
This is inspirational work. Well done.
Quiero agradecer a love.futbol por todo lo que hecho por mi pais, transformando la vida de muchas comunidades pobres de Guatemala, y proporcionar ideas a nuestra gente para saber que ellos pueden transformar sus vidas y hacer de ellas mejores comunidades atraves del deporte y la inspiracion; ojala que pueda love.futbol seguir transformando la vida de muchos seres humanaos en centro america y el resto del mundo.
Soy costarricense, vivo en Guatemala y soy una testigo fidedigna y ocular del excelente trabajo hecho por love.futbol en este lindo país Centroamericano, he visto del beneficio que le brinda a los niños y niñas de las comunidades rurales, indígenas y marginadas donde se construyen estas pequeñas canchas o plazitas para ejecutar el futbol, además cuando se está en los proceso de gestión y construcción de los proyectos he percibido el buen ánimo, colaboración, entrega y corazón con que trabajan en equipo las personas tanto hombres y mujeres como infantes de las comunidades beneficiadas juntos con las autoridades y el personal de love.futbol de Guatemala, puedo certificar que estas personas admiran, creen y aman love.futbol por el cumplimiento y cambio dado a sus lugares de vivencia. Dios siga prosperando a los gestores y administradores de love.futbol para seguir dando progreso a estos infantes y asi ayudar en evitar direcciones equivocadas en sus vidas. Exitos.
This is a fantastic organization working for a critical cause. While LF works in Guatemala, there is a demand for their product all over the world. I recently traveled to Liberia, where I saw kids playing on dirt fields littered with broken glass. In spite of the circumstances, they were joyful to be playing the game they loved.
Giving kids an alternative outlet and the opportunity to develop through sports is key to developing the rule of law, my own area of work, as it can ensure that youth do not fall into the easy trap of crime.
Please vote for this organization and support them through facebook (http://www.facebook.com/lovefutbol?ref=ts) and twitter. (http://twitter.com/lovefutbol)
Few people know love.fútbol began in Morocco. That's a soccer passionate country – though, as we know, there are many. At the right hour, it would seem children play on every street corner. However, it was in one narrow alley-way, in a town off the map – near Cascades d'Ouzoud, if you know it – where love.fútbol actually came about.
It was a 4 on 4 pickup game, with the most senior player no older than 10. In a small opening of the alley, roughly 8 feet wide by 25 feet long, was their pitch. Running lengthwise from top to bottom of their space and splitting their two rock goal posts at either end was a canal about a foot wide and deep, and with hard cement corners.
The children jumped back and forth effortlessly over the gap, and without looking. Their cracked plastic ball still rolled relatively true over the cobblestone – chipping it back and forth over as they played. Clearly, they'd grown up there. The canal was inherent to their game.
Youth determination and innovation to play was always something quite beautiful to me. I'd been fortunate to grow up around all types of makeshift soccer in many other parts of the world – trees or tires as goals, crooked spaces, slanted fields, irregular, imperfect, but still somehow, quite fine places to play this simple game.
However, there was something striking about this scene in the alley. The kids played hard and the inevitable slip, trip and fall into this gully would be harsh. It was beyond what I respected as the imperfect beauty of soccer at the grassroots level. It was simply not a safe place to play.
Going on five years later I've seen much worse challenges and learned of many crazier stories than of the one in Morocco. Children play barefoot in trash dumps, over trash, glass and rocky land every day. They dash between speeding cars to cross the eight lane N2 highway outside of the Khayelitsha Township in Capetown, South Africa, and then hundreds of them play for miles along the highway median. They play clandestine soccer on prohibited land when there is enough moonlight in Zacapa, Guatemala.
Just recently, I learned that Maicon and Michel Bastos, two current stars for the Brazilian National Team who played in the World Cup last month, each had a brother hit and killed by a car while playing soccer in the streets.
Around the world children are fighting to play the Beautiful Game. Every entry into this competition is a testament to the power of soccer to change lives. It begins with a safe place to play.
Thank you to everyone for their support.
Drew Chafetz
Co-founder, CEO
love.fútbol
Check out our facebook page for photos! We are excited and honored to be working with such a great community to provide a safe place for future generations to play the game we all love!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=193776&id=126265962475&ref=mf
Want to see where your vote is going? Check out photos in the post above of our seventh field, currently under construction in the community of Juil, and watch the video directly below to see a profile of our eighth partner community, San Antonio Palopó (featured at the 5:45 mark of the film).
http://www.vimeo.com/13245568
Your votes are making these projects a reality! Spread the love and help us provide a right to the game to at-risk youth in these underserved communities!
This is an amazing cause. Let's help it grow!
I love this project even more than futobol
I recently had the pleasure of attending a luv.futball organized activity in New York City and was blown away by the amount of time, work and passion that these young professional men and women have dedicated to this organization. Their work has clearly paid off and I hope to see this initiative flourish in the coming months.
Thank you everyone for your votes, comments and feedback over the course of this competition! We are pleased and honored to finish in second place! Congrats to the Grand Prize winners, Rumah Cemara Football Program, as well as all the other prize winners and competitors!
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