James* (pictured) is a child scavenger. In Payatas, where Fairplay is based, this is a very normal thing. Kids will wake up in the middle of the night to scale the parked garbage trucks and will sift through the trash to find something to sell, recycle, or even eat. 

*Names are changed for child protection policies

For James this is normal. He's very candid about what the future holds. He will drop out of school, he says, once he's finished Elementary School so he can work and support his two younger brothers. 

James and his brothers are orphaned. Their mother had no chance in life. She was first pregnant at 12 years old, had two more boys, and then died of a heart attack at 19. Her husband, the boys' father, was stabbed to death a year before. The boys are looked after by their Grandparents in a tiny shanty in the slums of Payatas, one of the largest and poorest slums in the Philippines. His Grandparents have worked scavenging through trash for decades now. Bent over the garbage in the midday sun, their ailing bodies are making this more and more difficult. The burden on the boys to make more money to support the basic needs of the family continues to grow. 

James and his brothers play football with us regularly. We also now sponsor their education in school. But we need to build up a way for their family, and others like them, to earn a livelihood in a better way. We want to expand our football and coaching program so we can provide small allowances for teenage coaches so the kids don't have to scavenge, so they can study with us too at our school, and so they can build a future for themselves and their family. 

In Payatas we work with many children like James. We tell his story as an example of the many children that will benefit from sports, as players and coaches. 

We're looking for 2,500 pounds this year so we can:

• Train older kids to coach through our Fairplay Coaching Courses
• Provide a small allowance for our qualified coaches so they can coach younger age groups rather than scavenge through trash for their livelihood
• Hold training sessions for every age group so that 500 kids are regularly training with us by the end of the year (currently we have 200 players)
• Provide water and fruit during training sessions to keep players and coaches hydrated and their energy up
• Use these training sessions as a way to build relationships with the kids and invite them to our education projects so they can build a better education for themselves

For more about Payatas Football Club you can see this feature by FIFA TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q7U7KWihbs