In exactly one year from now, a team of street children from Burundi will be participating at the 2014 Street Child World Cup in Rio (and despite it being all about the taking part, I would like them to win!).

The team will come from New Generation, the project that Street Action supports in Burundi. But at the moment, whilst they love playing football, they don't have much kit or facilties to train properly.

Running this marathon is the start of a year's fundraising programme to get the team of Burundian street children to the Street Child World Cup. At this stage I am just wanting to raise some money to buy them some footballs, some boots, some kit, a couple of goals to train with and (sadly this is a reality) some food to give them the energy they need to train.

To ensure that this venture has a longer term impact and is not just a one-off (albeit fun) event, we are looking to set up a New Generation football programme in Bujumbura (the capital of Burundi) as a holistic progamme that fuses football with psychosocial support, nutrition, health and education. This model will be used in developing alternatives to street life for Bujumbura's street children.

Central to this programme is the Street Child World Cup campaign which will see a team from New Generation participating in the 2014 event in Rio. The few children who will participate in Rio will be ambassadors for Burundi, joining other street child ambassadors from fifteen other countries to play football and, more importantly, say to the governments of the world, including their own, that no child should have to live on the streets. Central to the football tournament in Rio will be a conference for street children to discuss and highlight to the world the issues that they want to talk about.

So if you have a few pounds to spare to help us buy some footballs and boots for the children to prepare for Rio then thank you. And if you have a few more pounds and would be prepared to help out in other ways then please call me.

As part of the broader aim of getting the Burundian team to the SCWC in Rio (and hopefully winning it!) we are also looking for companies (or individuals/trusts) to sponsor the team, get them to Rio and help them become ambassadors for street children in Burundi, and around the world. 

If you, or the company you work for/with may be interested in helping out more (with the Burundian team, or one of the other fifteen countries represented), or you know of other contacts that may be interested in this project, then please call me on 07767 370123 or email me - nick@streetaction.org.

Thanks - however you can help.

Nick