Dear Friends,
Here is a quick update on what your contributes has allowed us to achieve;
March kicked off with the origins of our work shared to a global audience on FIFA.Com (check it out if you haven’t do so), our players on the ground were busy preparing for International Women’s Day.
The globally celebrated date of March 8th presented an opportunity to showcase the continued efforts by everyone at FundLife to ensure the universal aspirations for gender equality are being manifested into concrete actions in the communities serve.
With support from our global change partner, Coaches Across Continents, and supporting IWF’s message of #BalanceForBetter, FundLife worked with public school teachers, community social workers and FFLA players to deliver play-based workshops and awareness building.
The IWD activities complimented our 4th Match-day of the Girls Community League for the UN Global Goals, our dedicated female empowerment programme that aims protect, educate and empower 21,000 girls by 2021 – an ambitious target that you can help us reach – More on this later!
March also bought great news with FundLife signing an MOA with the Australian embassy in Manila, to extend the GCL to reach an additional 300 girls in Cebu. The project will work with girls from communities that have some of highest risk human trafficking and poverty rates in the province We’re proud and excited to begin this new chapter with a committed supporter on board helping us champion protection and education for all girls.
April began with FundLife delivering a ‘Play for Peace’ Capacity Building seminar for teachers and youth leaders. Led by FFLA’s Senior Coach, Rhobs, the seminar introduced the concept of Football 3 to educators and delivered key techniques for the use of sport for social impact, bothin schools and in communities.
The seminar coincided with the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP). The day marked a double celebration as it was announced FundLife was awarded the 2019 Sport and Active Society Commission development grant, a global initiative led by the International Olympic Committee. The grant will allow FundLife to launch crucial interventions in Northern and Central Mindanao, supporting children affected by the Marwari conflict and those from vulnerable communities in Iligan, Butuan, Malaybalay City as well as the wider Bukidnon region.
April also saw the culmination of the first leg of the GCL, crowing our first Tacloban champions and paving the way for the GCL Summer League, which will commence next month – providing structured play for students during the summer months.
We can't wait to share updates on May and June during our next report!!
In meantime, don't forget to check out and follow our facebook pages for Girls Community League, Football for Life and FundLife.
Hello FFLA friend,
Happy New Year! Fingers crossed for a successful, meaningful and impact-driven 2019!
Yet another quarter has passed, and we are happy to get in touch with you and walk you through all the exciting stuff which has happened recently.
Sama-Sama Games: epic success!
In early December, we came together to celebrate unity and opportunity through our annual festival Sama-Sama Games in the city of Cebu. This time, we were blessed with the great support extended by Generation Amazing who share the same vision with us. An overwhelming number of 588 children aged 7-18 from 26 marginalized local communities participated in the Games. As part of the festival, Generation Amazing Ambassadors Coach John Paul and Coach Jhean facilitated the “Be Amazing Workshop” with 24 children, 12 male and 12 female, with the support of the other FFLA coaches and staff from Leunthai Football School and Davao FC. Read more about this epic festival here. Continue with checking some cool photos here. And here is this video for dessert, don’t forget to check it out, too!
Cebu Women’s Community Futsal League finally kicked-off
A press conference was also held for the Sama-Sama Games and the launch of the Cebu Women's Community Futsal League where FundLife, Generation Amazing and Giuseppe Community Football Club shared their vision to promote social and educational development through football with the launching of Cebu Women's Community Futsal League (CWCL), where sponsored communities would hold regular futsal games in a structured league format. Stay tuned as we properly unroll this new initiative!
Outcomes and impact: let’s hear some FFLA stories
In 2019, our flagship project – today known as Football for Life Academy – is turning 5 years old. The project started as a mere emergency response effort back in 2014 but from the very start we knew we were into this for the long haul! We hoped that if the project ran well, it would evolve into a holistic educational project with a long-term goal to give the marginalized children a fair shot in life and their respective communities a chance to develop. Today we look back and we are thrilled to witness that the positive change is indeed taking place. Have a look at the story of Kem who shares how he transformed from being a socially withdrawn and hard-headed kid to becoming a courageous learner who looks at life and its challenges more positively. Let us also introduce to you Juliet, one of FFLA's best players, who wrote about her experience on how FundLife's programme improved her life and encouraged her to excel more in her academic activities.
It’s stories like these which keeps us going! Hope they will brighten up your day, too!
Truly yours,
FundLife Team
Links:
5 Years Since Haiyan: We Need to Do More
Dear FFLA friend,
Greetings from the Philippines!
November 8 marked the 5th anniversary of the world’s strongest storm, Typhoon Haiyan. For the many who were in the Philippines on that day, it is a date that we will never forget. Manila was dark, tress swayed violently as the rain fell. It was adverse, but nothing that prepared us for what was happening in Eastern Visayas. The destruction Haiyan left behind was horrific; over 7,000 deaths, 16 million affected and over 1 million houses destroyed. Today, over 5,000 families who lost homes still wait to be rehoused and replaced. As Jack Sim would say, ‘bureaucrazy’!
On November 8 five years ago FundLife did not exist. We were nothing but a vision to champion greater opportunities and education for the hundreds of thousand children living in the slums of Manila. That day changed everything. We suddenly became naïve experts. For a brief moment, as is true for any global calamity, the world cared. Tacloban and other affected areas were given unprecedented financial aid. All too often, this aid never reached the communities, never gave agency to those who continue to rebuild their own lives. Never offered anything more than brief respite.
Five years on, long after the media and the international NGO’s left, FundLife is still in those very communities. We have seen what is possible when we invest in children, in communities, in educational opportunity. When we remove politics. We hope that we are able to learn from the devastation of Haiyan, and ensure we do better. We must change the way we respond and how we account for aid.
When we learn how to give agency, local organisations far better than FundLife can change the entire landscape of their communities. But they need opportunity – not aid. Five years after we started; our work is just beginning. Dreams are just starting to be cultivated – and these dreamers are no longer just the dreams of Haiyan Survivors – they are the dreams of the forgotten. Today we remember – not only those who lost so much five years ago, but also those who continue suffer every single day as we idle by.
But more than remember, we must act – if we do not, who will.
FundLife collaborates with Genesis Project from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)
FundLife programme director, Marko Kasic and former Arsenal in the Community Coach, Etienne Digout, visited BiH to conduct a seminar organised by Genesis to promote the use of “football and play” as a tool for inclusivity and peace building. The seminar, to foster and promote positive role models through sport, was delivered to 12 female and 12 male school children and 16 educators from across Central BiH.
Taking place in mountainous town of Jahorina (one of the venues used in the Sarajevo 84’ Winter Olympics), the seminar included the introduction of football 3 methodology to school children instructing them how football can be used to promote gender equity, inclusivity, respect and fair play. Read more about the newly acquired partnership here!
Partnership with Giuseppe Football Club in action
In early August we reported that a new partnership had come to force – between FundLife and Giuseppe Football Club. We are happy to follow up on this on conclude that the partnership has been developed as strongly as we had hoped for!
To achieve our mutual goal, both GFC and FundLife came up with the Girls Community League to identify girls’ teams, whether they are playing football or futsal, and see how they can help them. Currently, GFC and FundLife are holding a futsal training program at the Sisters of Mary School Girlstown in the city of Talisay, Cebu, after finding out that they have a team but has not yet received formal training. Catch more details on this exciting project here.
FundLife participates in the Coaches Across Continents – Gawad Kalinga joint programme
FundLife and Coaches Across Continents (CAC) partnership goes way back – our CAC friends have come to the Philippines several times to conduct intensive trainings on football4good for our coaches. Today, we have grown our competence to a level when we can participate in CAC outreach programmes as equal partners. What more to aspire for!
Recently, our Community Impact Coach, Robelyn Villas, took part in a joint CAC-Gawad Kalinga programme. Read the wonderful story about her experience of working with Coaches Across Continents On-Field in the Philippines with CAC Community Partner, Gawad Kalinga, after the already exciting adventure of the FIFA Football for Hope Festival in Russia this Summer of 2018 in partnership with the World Cup!
Preparation for annual Sama-Sama Games is in full swing
In early December we are hosting our annual Sama-Sama Games in the City of Cebu. This will be the 8th event so far and it has been evolved a lot over this time period, however the main idea of the Games has remained unchanged: once a year we come together to celebrate unity and opportunity. This year, it is organized with the great support of Generation Amazing who share the same vision with us. Stay tuned for more information on how it goes!
Truly yours,
FundLife Team
