Giving a Dream and a Hope

SOS Children’s Villages is an organization that provides family-like care for children in need. There are currently 571 children’s villages in 134 countries across the globe that is home to approximately 86,000 children. In the Philippines, there are currently 8 SOS Children’s Villages across the country, with almost 1,000 children and young adults under their care. One of which, is located in Muntinlupa.

On January 12th, Taal volcano emitted ash up to 15 kilometers high into the air, which drove the government to raise the alert level to 4, indicating a “hazardous explosive eruption that may happen in a few hours or several days”. The nearby province of Batangas, including Lipa, was declared under the state of calamity. It was then that SOS Lipa immediately decided to move their families to SOS Children’s Village Muntinlupa indefinitely, until it has been declared officially safe to return to their homes.

The team of Football for Humanity, as represented by Chris Thomas and Belle Tiongco, knew what had to be done. Being one of the organizations most proactive in taking the lead in helping children thrive in the face of adversity, they reached out to their trusted connections for a bit of support and one of them is Coach Patrick Asseu of Bright Academy.

Coach Patrick having founded Bright Academy with the main objective of providing a time-tested method of football coaching for children was absolutely sure that his experience with his methods was what the children of SOS deserve. More than just making time to help these children and young adults to be encouraged at this time of calamity by simply kicking some balls around, Coach Patrick had a way of showing children exactly why football was called “the beautiful game”.

Joined by new found friends from the Ivory Coast, Congo, Great Britain, and the Philippines, the lively and tireless children from SOS Lipa spent an afternoon learning new games, tricks, lessons, and more importantly, discovering their own strengths and special skills through the game of football. These were groups of boys and girls, a couple wearing old boots, others with worn out sneakers, broken slip-ons, and some even played barefoot. These children knew what they wanted. They wanted to play. And they got PLAY.

The afternoon was nothing short of exhilarating. It was not easy to end the day when you see them enjoying, without a care in the world, and just so full of energy. A priceless moment, really. Especially when a child holds your hand, sits very close to you to just smile, laugh with you, play with you, and even make attempts to communicate despite the language barrier. By the looks of it, the guests may have just succeeded in giving the children a bit of a dream and hope that things can and will get better.

Thank you SOS Children’s Village for this opportunity to meet your children and Football for Humanity for trusting us to help fulfil your goal.

If in this way that the game of football was not about breaking world barriers, then it never would have been called “the beautiful game”.

If you want to offer assistance to families and children of SOS Children’s Village, click here.

To know more about the mission of Football for Humanity, click here.

Let your child experience the beautiful game of football through a tried and tested European method. Contact Coach Patrick Asseu.

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