An invitation to Downing Street is not to be sniffed at! So last Thursday we enthusiastically attended a reception at No.11 for the launch of the Street Child World Cup . (And, well spotted, the photo was indeed taken next door. But let’s face it – No.10 is the place to snap. Besides, as we all came out of No.11 it was hard to get a shot with the door closed!
So, it was great fun to rub shoulders with some of the great and the good from the football world, including David Moyes, Manager of Everton; Eduardo – Arsenal’s Brazilian-Croatian genius; David Seaman, ex-England Keeper and Tottenham’s Wilson Palacios. Now if these names mean little to you, Sarah Brown, the PM’s wife was there too and Maggie Darling, the Chancellor’s wife, hosted the evening, and was a wonderful conversationalist. Indeed, on hearing we were with BMS, she told us where she was baptised, and Mark Craig, our Communications Director, knew the very mission hall!
So much for the roll of honour. More important was the fact that BMS is sponsoring the Nicaragua team, so it was really exciting to hear news on the evening of how this competition has already raised awareness of the plight of street kids in Nicaragua.
Here is a group of youngsters, boys and girls, who like so many street kids the world over, have no legal identity, no papers, no passport. But now they have passports so they can travel to South Africa in March for the competition. Moreover, when Casa Alianza, the NGO working amongst street kids in Nicaragua, called a press conference, they were met not by the usual indifference, but by so many people it was almost impossible to get into the room!
And a last measure of the impact of the competition, the national papers in Nicaragua referred to these street kids as ‘our kids’, and lauded them as a ‘national team’ of Nicaragua. How simple yet profound: a football competition brings dignity to a bunch of youngsters nobody cared about!
BMS is backing this initiative, not primarily as a football competition, though we’re cheering on Nicaragua as ‘our team’ too, but as the beginning of a 4-year campaign to raise the plight of the world’s street children in the corridors of power. By lobbying parliaments and influencing law-makers, the lives of these youngsters can be changed. We have seen in so many parts of the world that young lives can be transformed by access to health, a roof over their heads and even just a basic education – the success of the PEPE projects is evidence of this.
But we know too that complete transformation is more than even these things, which is why we were pleased to see both Christian organisations such as BMS present alongside corporate sponsors from the business world.
You can register to follow the Street Child World Cup on our website and keep an eye on Nicaragua’s progress. And if football is your thing, look out for a resource for churches this summer which will interweave elements of the Street Child World Cup with the FIFA World Cup.
And by the way, the canapés were great!
David Kerrigan
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