IT STARTS WITH SOCCER
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Mission Statement
It Starts With Soccer is 100% volunteer-run organization based in Austin, Texas. Our goal is to help under-served children in Africa break out of the cycle of poverty and we achieve this by combining soccer with community outreach projects to promote lasting change.
About This Cause
We achieve our goal of helping under-served children in Africa break out of the cycle of poverty through a two-part strategy: What we do on the field of play, and off the field of play. On the field of play, we use soccer clinics to educate children about life through sport. We achieve this by relating soccer to real life situations, through exercises and drills in which we underline the importance of good decision making, developing individual skills and working together as a team. in addition to instruction, our soccer clinic participants receive refreshments, soccer equipment, and much needed school supplies. Off the field of play, we focus on tangibly improving the everyday living conditions of the children. Our primary focus is on our sustainable school farm and agriculture education program, which teaches children how to farm, while also providing their school with food for nourishment and revenue for school supplies. Additionally, we work to address water, solar, medical, educational, and construction / renovation needs of the communities we work in. Our projects include, but are not limited to: 1. Soccer Clinics: Soccer clinics are an essential part of our work in Africa, providing us a platform to educate children about life through sport, using the most popular sport in the world. The primary focus of our clinics is to provide the children with the tools to be successful in school and in their communities. We achieve this by relating soccer to real life situations, through exercises and drills in which we underline the importance of good decision making, developing individual skills and working together as a team. We also provide our participants with school supplies, including English and Math notebooks, rulers, pens and pencils to help ease the burden of school expenses on the children and their families. The average cost of a soccer clinic for 40-50 children is $300. 2. Sustainable School Farms: What are sustainable school farms? We’ve been building agriculture and livestock farms to help the children learn how to farm; to provide the students with food to eat; to teach the children how to make a business out of farming; to generate funds for the schools to buy much needed supplies for the students, by selling crop yields, livestock, and meat to the surrounding communities. How do we create and maintain our school farms? We build greenhouses and install livestock farms (goat & cow corrals, chicken coops); help to maintain a constant supply of water for the school farms, through drilling of wells, installing solar pumps, and installing pipes, hoses, and spigots; and provide seed, fertilizer, tools, and agriculture education. How do we ensure successful outcomes? We provide weekly agriculture education classes at the schools; provide needed supplies and maintain water supplies; and also have competitions between schools to see who can have the most successful crop yields over the course of individual school terms, and entire school years. Why are school farms so important? Nutrition - Most children in the rural areas walk many miles to and from school and are not provided food to eat while there. Trying to learn when fatigued and malnourished makes for poor learning conditions. Our sustainable school farms provide a constant source of food for the children and staff. Life Skills - Only a rare few children in rural Africa are able to pursue a higher education (lack of money, supplies, literacy). For this reason, it is imperative that the children learn life skills that will help them to be successful in life. Our Agriculture Education Program teaches the children how to farm and how to make a business out of farming School Supplies - Most children in rural African schools do not have access to basic school supplies (pens, pencils, rulers, notebooks). Textbooks are often non-existent, or there are so few that several students have to share just one. A portion of the crop yields, milk, eggs, and meat, from our sustainable school farms are sold to the surrounding community and the proceeds are then used to purchase much needed supplies for the schools. 3. Wells & Borehole Drilling: Hand-dug wells and shallow borehole wells are useful in areas where clean water is inaccessible. They are similar in that they both provide safe drinking water for 250-350 people, but they differ in depth, process and cost. Hand-dug wells can be accessed by hand tools and smaller equipment and are generally 8-20 meters in depth. The cost for Hand-dug wells is about $5000. Shallow boreholes require larger equipment and drilling rigs to reach depths of 35-70 meters and the cost is typically $10,000. 4. Solar Pumps / Panels: Solar panels are an important and relatively inexpensive source of renewable energy, that can make a big difference in rural African communities. These communities often do not have access to electricity and the areas that do have access to electricity experience frequent power outages. Solar panels not only provide power for lighting, charging, and operating electronics and appliances, but they also can power pumps at boreholes to help drive water over long distances. Solar pumps are essentially water pumps that are powered by solar panels. They pull water from boreholes and push it through pipes into reserve water tanks and to spigots on school grounds. Boreholes can be located long distances from schools, leading to poor sanitation, poor nutrition, and difficulty maintaining school farms. We provide solar pumps to help insure a constant flow of clean water to the schools we work with. 5. Construction: Soccer field & sports court construction at schools and orphanages is an important part of our work, because it provides a place for the children to exercise, develop self-esteem, and learn the importance of team work, responsibility and community. The soccer fields we build in Africa cost an average of $2000-$3000 and involve the leveling and clearing of the field, and the installation of goals, nets and flags. Sports courts cost $8000-$10000 and involve leveling and clearing of land; pouring a slab; installing netball posts/hoops, basketball posts/hoops, futsal goals, and volleyball post/nets; and painting. School farm construction involves building greenhouses, chicken coops, goat and cow corrals, in combination with providing livestock, water accessibility (wells, solar pumps, pipes, spigots, hoses), seed, fertilizer, and gardening tools. The purpose of these farms is to teach children how to farm; provide a food source for the school; and provide revenue to keep the farm going and purchase much needed supplies for the school. Greenhouses cost ~ $2000 to install. We install livestock corrals and chicken coops as one project, and they total ~ $6000. Livestock, seed, and other supplies are additional. School construction and renovation allows us the opportunity to provide new or better classrooms, dormitories and sanitation facilities for children in under-served communities, creating an environment that is safe and conducive to learning. Construction costs vary greatly based on details such as the scale of the project, location and materials used. Orphanage construction allows us the opportunity to provide a place of refuge for homeless children in Africa. Millions of children in Africa are orphaned by HIV/AIDS alone and the numbers are rising. Construction costs vary greatly based on details such as the scale of the project, location and materials used, however in our experience, a house that sleeps 15-20 children costs $30,000-$50,000, and a dormitory that sleeps up to 100 children costs between $50,000 and $100,000. Medical Clinic construction allows us the opportunity to provide rural communities with access to medical care. Access to medical care in rural areas is very limited and often people have to walk many miles to receive help. Unnecessary deaths, often result from illnesses, injuries, and complications with pregnancies that would be easily treated if medical care was accessible. A new medical clinic can vary greatly in cost, depending on location and government regulations.