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Play For Hope: The Blog
Thanksgiving PDF   E-mail
Written by Brian Beckman   
Thursday, 24 November 2011 09:44

We at Play For Hope have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  I wanted to take the time to just give you a small snapshot of all the amazing things that have happened for Play For Hope in the last few months:

 

1.  An African Feast


This past September we were able to have our own feast with almost 100 of our players in Rwanda and 80 guests in Portland.  It was an incredible time of our players sharing with us in the US what Play For Hope had done in their life and enjoying a good meal together. All of the children were able to eat the same great meal that we had in America.  In Rwanda the event turned into an all night dance party and celebration, as any good feast ought to.

 

2.  An Exciting Tournament Final 

We had an incredible final to our 2.5 month tournament, which included:

The best match I have ever seen featuring our girls under 19 team.  I have never seen a crowd react so positively to female players here.

The chance to play all 4 of our divisions final matches on one of the only turf fields in the entire country.

The Rwandan National U17 coach speaking to our players and encouraging them of all that they can become.

 

3.  Hiring 4 Coaches and an Administrative Assistant

 We have been able to hire our first four staff coaches and an administrative assistant.  The four coaches that we hired, Regis, Center, Pascal, and Richard, have all shown incredible commimtent to Play For Hope and its vision.

 We are extremely excited to be able to hire them as many were struggling to continue coaching and to find food to eat.  Now they will be able to further impact our players as they will go through daily training in the morning and will be freed most afternoons to visit players.  This is a huge step for Play For Hope as an organization.   

 

4.  Moving Into A New Office

We had outgrown our old office and could no longer fit all of our new staff and sports equipment inside of it.  Thankfully we were able to find a new office that not only fits all of our equipment and has space for coach training, but is much quieter than our old office allowing us to accomplish more work.  

 

5.  Continued Growth

We have been able to grow to reach more and more athletes this year.  In fact, tomorrow we will be meeting with a group of street kids who live in a landfill who are interested in starting a team.  It is exciting time for us to see our ability to impact players grow and grow.  

 

6.  You 

And finally we are thankful for all of you who have supported us, encouraged us, and followed us.  We would never been able to reach all of these children without you. 

 
Tournament Final PDF   E-mail
Written by Brian Beckman   
Wednesday, 23 November 2011 09:28

We reached the exciting conclusion of our tournament this past weekend.  We were able to play the matches on the turf fields just outside of the national stadium thanks to our partnership with a team in the Rwandan 2nd division called Gasabo United.  We were honored to have both the Head Coach of the U17 Rwandan National Team and the Vice President of the Rwanda Football Federation watch our matches and encourage our children. We had large crowds gather in the afternoons for our matches.

 

While the three boys matches were relatively drama free, the girls match was absolutely incredible.  I have personally never seen a better match in Rwanda both in terms of excitement and how well the girls played.  Even the crowd who in the past I had seen mocking girls was cheering them on and gasping at every missed shot.  After a hard fought battle, including extra time, the match was tied 3-3.  In the end our girls team Imbaraga triumphed over the newly formed Mission FC.  Personally I could not be prouder of Mission FC who I have been able to help train and watch grow over the past 6 months.  They have come from many of them barely being able to dribble a ball and being very hard to a joyous group of girls that play well together and truly made a play for the cup in our tournament.  Check out pictures below.

The cups being competed for.

 

Boys Under 14 before the match

 

Boys Under 21 Match

 

Boys Under 17 Match

 

Girls Match

 

Setting up for the PKs

 

The keeper getting ready

 

Imbaraga coach and captain hoisting the trophy after the big win!

 
Tournament Finals PDF   E-mail
Written by Brian Beckman   
Wednesday, 16 November 2011 18:34

We are excited to announce the conclusion of our two month tournament.  Through the two months 27 teams competed in 4 divisions to win the first annual Play For Hope cup.  It has been incredible time for all of us as this is the biggest event that Play For Hope has ever thrown.  

 It is exciting to us to introduce Play For Hope to Rwanda and demonstrate all that God has done for us.  Hundreds of our players will be coming to celebrate the closing of our tournament and showing our many new guests who will be attending what they have learned with Play For Hope.

 If you are in Rwanda and would like to come and see us, we will be on the turf field outside of the National Stadium (Stade Amahoro) at the following times:

 

Saturday (19th): 12pm: Celebration of Athletes (200-300 of our 800 athletes will be coming to showcase what they have accomplished this year)
1pm: Under 14 Boys Finals
3pm: Under 19 Girls Finals
5pm: Cup Presentation

Sunday (20th): 1pm: Under 21 Boys Finals
3pm: Under 17 Boys Finals

5pm: Cup Presentation 

 

If you cannot be with us please stay tuned for picture and updates and pray for us. 

 
Tournament Pictures PDF   E-mail
Written by Brian Beckman   
Friday, 21 October 2011 19:43

Here are some pictures from our 2.5 month tournament.  The tournament will be concluding on November 11th.  Hope you enjoy seeing our kids in action!  Please stay tuned for more media and more about the exciting stories that are coming from the tournament.



Huddling up before the big match.




And playing!




Girls getting ready for their big game.

Shot from the girls match.

 

We are playing rain or shine.  That was a white jersey.

 

 Our coaches also were referees for the match after completing a course with a referee from the Rwanda Football Federation.

 
Tournament Launch PDF   E-mail
Written by Brian Beckman   
Wednesday, 14 September 2011 17:16
Our "The Future Is Now" Soccer Tournament has officially launched. The aim of the tournament is to teach our youth and kids that they have the ability to change their lives today and pursue their dreams, rather than waiting until tomorrow.  The tournament has four divisions and 27 total teams.  The divisions are broken down into U21 Boys, U17 Boys, U14 Boys, and U19 Girls.  We are excited to get to see all of our players get to show off their skills and hard work.  The tournament will last for the entire month and will hopefully be a precursor to a league.  A basketball tournament will follow its completion. Pictures will be coming soon.  
 
Dancing In Burundi PDF   E-mail
Written by Brian Beckman   
Monday, 12 September 2011 21:54

I want to take sometime to share with you stories that I was not able to write while in Rwanda due to time constraints.  The first post is about our coaches experience while in Burundi.  One of the amazing things that happened was a joy came over the entire group that was palpable to everyone who came in contact with us.  Days were spent working with children helping them to have a fun (and loud!) experience learning about sports.  In between the sports clinics we traveled in a packed van with constant singing, drumming, and shouting. At nights the coaches busted into spontaneous dance parties filled with joy and expressing the passion for what they were doing.  I have included pictures and video below:

 

 



Senta breaking it down

 Elvis and Richard.

Many of the coaches taking turns.

And of course a video of a spontaneous performance at the Palau Association's prayer meeting:

 

 

 
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