Play For Hope

Many people in America who know about Play For Hope know about it because of me.  It is often my words that are heard spoken, my posts that are read, and my face that is seen.  I consider it an honor to speak on behalf of my dear friends in Rwanda as they fight daily in their neighborhoods for the forgotten children of Rwanda.  I do this to the best of my ability.

There is however something I want to make very, very clear.  The words I speak and the stories I tell are not mine, at least not mine alone.  There are countless Africans who are sacrificing for Play For Hope.  Many of our coaches have quit or been fired from jobs in order to keep coaching, because they believe that strongly in what they are doing to impact the youth of Rwanda.  (We have been fortunate enough to bring some of them on staff as full-time coaches who otherwise were unsure of how they could eat and coach.)

You see many people believe we run sports teams and I suppose that is accurate.  But what we actually do is turn coaches into fathers, teams into families, and our athletes into youth who believe they can impact their future.  We believe the power of any country to change is within its people and within its youth - discovering who they have been created to be by God and embracing it.  This we believe will make a far greater impact than any temporary feeding or housing program.

That being said there are times when children need to be fed and need to be housed.  The plan we have been putting forth for the Street Kid Soccer Academy, which will help some of our most vulnerable athletes get off the streets, is a plan which was created in large part by our coaches who themselves used to live and were able to get off of the streets.  Our hope in starting the academy is to continue engaging in these kids’ lives so that they can reach their full potential and create a beautiful future for Rwanda.  

We are asking for funding initially to get this started.  Our hope is that over the course of time that all of the funding for this to continue running will then come from Rwanda.  The Rwandans are working hard to make this a reality.  I am asking not that we save them – for such a thing is not possible, but rather that we stand with them as they do this. 

For more information on what we are doing for our academy and how you can donate, please visit www.playforhope.org/academy.

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:

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. 

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!

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. 

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.