Olives football match

We are now a week and a bit into the Mombasa Childcare project and one thing that has become blatently obvious is how much the children love football (or soccer as we Aussie's call it). From the moment we walked into the schoolyard, carrying a couple of footballs, we were swamped by kids. We knew we’d be spending a lot of time kicking the ball around.

Today we organised a game between standard 5 and standard 7 on the local playing field; a coral-littered patch of dirt. The boys split up into two teams, set up the goals and we were off. The biggest challenge was simply establishing boundaries and when it was a ‘throw-in,’ ‘goal kick,’ or ‘corner.’

Our aim was to establish teamwork among the children and focus on short, skillful passes rather than simply booting the ball as hard as they could. The ‘short, skillful passes’ weren’t an issue, all of the kids have outstanding skills. However, the teamwork aim was harder to achieve and still requires a bit ofwork!

All-in-all the game was a success and the kids loved it, which is the main thing!

By Volunteers, Brad Coles and Ben Beckerleg

Olives football match