PLAY SOCCER. SAVE LIVES. IT'S THAT SIMPLE.
MAKE IT COUNT! Upon registration, teams will be asked to select which project they want to support. Please direct your players and families to this page, then discuss which charity(ies) you'd like to support. By making the choice as a team which charity to support, your players are gaining awareness about global poverty and disease while playing together to provide relief. Read here about the projects we support, or learn more about the charities by clicking on logos.
Right now, 1.1 billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water. That's one in six of us. In addition, half of all the schools in the world lack clean water and sanitation. It's the number one reason girls drop out. Kick for Hope is partnering with Charity:water to raise funding for school wells and bathrooms. The cost to provide one school with clean drinking water, bathrooms and hand washing stations is approximately $20,000. Wells will also provide clean drinking water to members of surrounding communities who can collect water when they take and pick their children up at school.
Some people think football is a matter of life and death... in Africa, it can be. Using curriculum provided by Grassroot Soccer, Kick 4 Life uses soccer to empower youth with the skills to adopt healthy behaviors and to live HIV free, while linking them with relevant support networks. In addition to providing curriculum to 25 implementing partners in 16 countries, Grassroot Soccer directly implements its HIV prevention and life skills curriculum in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Since 2003, over 250,000 youth have graduated from GRS programs.
In Lesotho, southern Africa, 23% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS. Many of these are children who do not have access to treatment that could save thier lives. These are large one-day soccer festivals where teams not only get points for winning matches, but also for taking part in health education and voluntary testing. In a single day Kick4Life can test more than 500 kids for HIV, referring those who are positive to life-saving treatment and counseling.
Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds, but it can be stopped if we act NOW. Kick for Hope is joining forces with Malaria No More to increase the use of prevention tools and malaria treatment in Africa. Tools like mosquito nets, effective medicines and safe indoor spraying can save lives. For $10 a mother and child can be protected for up to five years. This year we are also focusing on providing test and treatments for those already infected with malaria. A rapid blood test will confirm the presence of malaria and a treatment that costs less than a dollar will provide a cure for a child. When these tools are available, there is dramatic progress.
World Vision is a global organization with offices in over 100 countries. The millions of people they serve include earthquake and hurricane survivors, abandoned and exploited children, survivors of famine and civil wars, children and families in communities devastated by AIDS in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Our partnership with World Vision allows us to multiply our funds for projects in Africa from 3 to 9 times. This means one teams registration fee of $565 will contribute a minimum of $1695 toward an agricultural or water project in Africa.