Pitch projects
We constantly think about what we can do to help the kids in Rwanda. As a tiny charity run by volunteers, we can’t really make a dent in the poverty we see.
What makes sense for us to do, in our own small way, is to try and provide them with better football facilities
On every trip our coaches comment on just how bad the pitches are - back home they wouldn’t just be deemed unplayable, we wouldn’t even consider them for football. And yet the kids in Rwanda don’t complain - they just get on with what they have and make the best of it with grace and positivity.
By improving their pitches we not only make football better, but hopefully we can help the whole community
This school and the surrounding area is very close to our hearts. Each trip we travel to the West of Rwanda to spend a couple of days here.
The area has a particularly poignant Genocide story - before 1994 it was a place of about 60,000 people. Only 1,500 survived and Bisesero became symbolic of the role and responsibility that France in particular had in the atrocity.
“That was probably the hardest place for us as a charity to earn any semblance of trust out of anywhere I’ve worked in Rwanda, because ‘‘mzungu (white guy), we remember what you did to us’’. - Mark Fleming
Bisesero pitch project, Kibuye District
The worst football pitch in the World
The Bisesero pitch is a perfect example of this…it really is terrible! It must be the un-flattest piece of land football is played on, and a telegraph pole and concrete block thrown into the mix. Our mission for 2024 is to fix it for them…
With an initial donation of £6,000 from our 2022 Trip coaches, work on the pitch started in February 2024 during our visit. A huge movement of earth is the first stage, lowering the “road end” to build up the opposite side/slope.
A further £4,000 from our February ‘24 group funded the next stage of building retaining walls on both sides, putting in pipes for drainage and getting the surface ready for grass seeding in September.
The last stage still needs funding - compacting the excavated slope to support the pitch, then fences and goal posts to complete the job
Fundraising target: the final £7,000 by Oct ‘24
Work began in Feb ‘24 to build up the side of the pitch opposite the road. The pole in the photo (see the white line) marks the height of the pitch and where it will extend to
The digging will continue along the dotted line (with the pole being moved by the energy company), several meters deep. This will be reinforced with a tiered wall that will double as a seated area for spectators
Update July ‘24
All activities about levelling, compacting, retaining walls, fixing goal posts have been completed. The remaining stage is planting grasses which will take place in September, after the dry season. The retaining wall is built in a way it will also serve as seats for the spectators.
Gikondo Mburabuturo pitch project - The “Bernabéu”
All of our coaches know the “Bernabeu” - our name for the piece of ground 500 yards down the road from our guest house.
There are two rusted goalposts, but apart from that nothing to resemble a football pitch. Wen it rains (daily) it turns into a quagmire - when the African sun dries it an hour later it turns into a dried up quagmire.
The kids don’t seem to care - in fact they seem to have developed excellent ball skills because of it!
Nonetheless, we would like to be our next project - to level the ground, create a new surface that doesn’t turn to mush and add 2 sets of 7s goals.
The result would have a huge benefit to the local community, and the hundreds of kids who play on it each day
Street Rescue Centre, Kigali - pitch project
Batsinda street kids rescue in Kigali has a place in the hearts of all our coaches.
Run by Scottish charity Comfort International, many of the children at Batsinda were brought in from a life living in the local rubbish dump, which was safer for them than the streets… Batsinda gives them a home, food, clothes and supports them through school. Hearing them tell their stories is one of the most inspirational and humbling things I have ever witnessed
The dream of David Gasana, who manages the centre, has been to build a transition centre - a safe place where kids can first recover from the trauma of the streets.
This dream is becoming reality - funded by Scots, building has started. The pans include an area for football, which we would love to support in some way if we are able to.
https://comfortinternational.org/what-we-do/street-kids-rescue/
The inspirational David Gasana, an ex-street kid and genocide survivor who now manages the centres in Kigali for Comfort International.
Can we help turn this into a football pitch for the street rescue kids?