Deloitte Street Child World Cup
Our team of nine Ukrainian children returned to Kharkiv at the end of March, after taking part in the first ever Deloitte Street Child World Cup held in Durban, South Africa.
Depaul Kharkiv, working with street homeless children and children in state-run orphanages in Ukraine, was invited to send a team to take part in the football competition. Eight teams of street children took part, from Ukraine, Brazil, Nicaragua, India, South Africa, Tanzania, Philippines, and the UK. Team Ukraine had six boys and three girls, aged 14-16, and the football matches were 7-a-side, with at least one girl playing at all times.
They were accompanied by three members of Depaul staff, and at the culmination of the knockout matches Depaul Kharkiv invited an official representative from the Ukrainian authorities to join the group, the deputy governor of Kharkiv region (until the recent elections in Ukraine). As a policy maker, she has been supportive of the aims of Depaul Kharkiv’s projects working with street children over the past two years, and attended the final matches and took part in several media events. We were also delighted that the Ukrainian Ambassador in South Africa also found time to attend several of the events and meet the children.
This is an initiative of the Amos Trust in the UK and Umthombo, an organisation working with street children in South Africa for many years. It’s not only been an opportunity for teams of street children from around the world to play football together, it's a tool for advocating on behalf of these disadvantaged children and highlighting their plight in a world arena, particularly since the World Cup itself was held in South Africa in 2010.
Deloitte was the major sponsor for the overall event, with many other companies and individuals involved with helping each team to actually get to South Africa to take part. Depaul International and Depaul Kharkiv would like to thank all those who helped Team Ukraine to take part. In particular:
- The South African Ambassador in Ukraine, Andries Venter, for his help in obtaining visas (and Christina Maciw for her contacts in this);
- Deloitte in Kiev for helping with the costs of transport to take our team from Kharkiv to Kiev to board the flights to South Africa;
- Sr Nuala Kelly and her friends from Belfast, Northern Ireland for their generous donation towards buying clothing, trainers and kit for the team.
- British Airways in the UK for offering free flights and extra baggage waiver for Erica Karpaiya, a Depaul UK manager who originally spent eight months in Ukraine when the project was being set up in 2007, who accompanied the team;
- Erica herself for devoting three weeks of her own time to help us achieve this project;
- Natasha and Sergey, our two Kharkiv staff members going with the team, and Vitaliy Novak, in overall charge of Depaul Kharkiv, all of whom worked tirelessly for several months to get all the permissions from the orphanages and various authorities and to obtain the passports and visas;
- Officials at the orphanages and Kharkiv regional government departments for giving permission for the children to take part.
It was a completely novel experience for our group of street children. For them it was almost beyond belief that they could even leave Ukraine to see another country, let alone go all the way to South Africa and be a part of such an amazing experience. This is an enormously momentous step forward and we hope that the experience will be a positive and life changing one for them, which they can share with others on their return, and give them hope that living on the streets or in an orphanage is not the only way of life, there are good things that can happen too.
The Deloitte Street Child World Cup provides an opportunity to raise awareness internationally about human rights issues for street children around the world who in many cases face the daily fear of police rounding them up, taking them off the streets, often beating them up. With politicians and policy makers representing all the countries taking part also joining the event, it was an opportunity for street children to speak out about these abuses, and actually have a say in future legislation affecting street children around the world, with indications that governments are willing to take their views on board.
Although the event has now been completed you can still see video footage of some of the matches, and other interviews and media events on www.streetchildworldcup.org
David Beckham:
"I know from personal experience just what power football can have to inspire and change young people’s lives whatever their background or nationality. This is what the Deloitte Street Child World Cup is all about and I give it my full support"
Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP:
"I commend the Street Child World Cup for providing a platform for the rights of street children to be heard. "
Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
"The Street Child World Cup demonstrates the tremendous potential of every single child, and especially street children, who are so often treated as less than human. I am proud that the first ever Street Child World Cup will take place in South Africa and I urge all governments to guarantee the rights of this most marginalised group of their citizens to lives in which their promise is fulfilled."
