Fifa-funded Football For Hope Centre in Nairobi stirs excitement

By Omulo Okoth

Kenya’s national football team, Harambee Stars, may not be doing so well on the global pecking order.

They currently stand at 126 on the world football ranking. They were neither at the last Fifa World Cup in South Africa, nor are they expecting to be in Brazil two years from now.

But all hope is not lost, thanks to Fifa’s Football For Hope Centre in Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) along Kangundo Road in Nairobi, which is attracting loads of young talent whose demand the management confesses they cannot cope with.

Set up two years ago as a legacy for Africa after the world football ruling body staged the globe’s most watched sports competition in the continent for the first time, the Football For Hope Centre is fuelling the desire to play the beautiful game.

It was part of the 20 centres, six of them in South Africa. The other one in East Africa is in Rwanda, whose top political leadership embraces football like no other African nation has seen.

Fifa created the 20 centres across the continent to promote public health, education and football in disadvantaged communities in Africa.

Fifa is aware that many communities in Africa still face serious social challenges.The Centre in Mysa perfectly fits the bill. David Thiru, Executive Director of Mysa, says the demand for accessing the Football For Hope Centre is so high that the Centre employed a Scheduling Manager to handle clients, most of them from the local communities.

“Ours is one of the most active centres in Africa. Local schools bring their children to play and also use our library, undergo Voluntary Counselling and Testing (for HIV/Aids),” Thiru told FeverPitch.

Local schools who don’t enjoy the trappings of affluence like ICT, foreign languages and well-stocked library, have benefitted from the proximity of the Centre, thanks to 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Football is only one segment of the Centre. Creative writing, poetry and linguistics are equally important elements of the Centre now. Add this to the literacy, gender equality and environmental clean-up, which form the hallmark of Mysa’s existence and one appreciates why Fifa chose picked the Kangundo Road venue to host its legacy project.

“The excitement associated with the desire to play on the turf is immeasurable,” said Thiru, who horned his playing and leadership skills in Mysa before working for a Norwegian firm, Norsk Hydro for five years, before returning ‘home’ to Mysa in 1999 as Head of Finance then was part of the Sports Leadership Academy four years ago.

Local schools who visit the Centre are Primerose Academy, Oreh Mission School, Rosebela Preparatory School, Shinners Academy Centre and Brainsfield Academy.

Kenyan Premier League sides like Mathare United, the flagship of MYSA Programme and Sofapaka occasionally use the facility for easy and relaxed training.

Thiru says the Centre is already proving too small for the local communities. Those who go for VCT, says Thiru, have complained that they don’t receive similar attention when they are referred to bigger facilities for the management of the disease that the Centre in Mysa cannot deal with.

“These are some of the challenges that we have faced in the two years the Centre has existed,” says Thiru.