Soccer Babies Charity Bike Ride

On Friday 7th September at 9am eight enthusiastic volunteers will set off on the first Soccer Babies fundraising event! We will be riding 103 miles over 2 days (not quite the Tour de France but then we are fatter and older than Wiggo) to raise cash to build a desperately needed toilet block for the local primary school in Kanvilli Tunaayili and a 3 year sponsorship package of the Babies FC in Tamale Ghana.

The Need

Babies FC is a youth football club based in Kanvilli Tunaayili, which is a small community of 1800 people in the northern suburbs of Tamale, Ghana. It's an area of chronic poverty - with an estimated 95% unemployment rate the community suffers from poor hygiene, nutrition and a consequent capacity for education and improvement.

The Appeal

We need to build on this small start and make a real difference with your help. The most pressing need at the local school is for decent sanitation and running water - with no toilet on site, for example, boys, girls and teachers must walk into the bush and leave themselves at risk of snake bites and disease, problems which a basic sanitation block can solve. We need £20,000 to build the toilet and secure the financial future of the local youth football club so please give generously!!!

The YouTube video on this page shows the Babies FC U17s scoring the winning goal in their friendly match over their local rivals in a match arranged for Soccer Babies visit to the community. The passion for football can be seen in the crowd turnout, but the mess on the pitch is just one sign of how tough conditions are.

Soccer Babies History

The inspiration behind the Soccer Babies project was the formation and development of The Babies FC in Ghana. The club was formed in October 2007 by a local teacher in the local village of Kanvilli Tunaayili, in Tamale, Ghana, where unemployment runs at some 95%. The club became the pilot club behind the Soccer Babies project helping to create the 'blueprint' for the organisation's approach.

Soccer Babies Vision

The vision of the charity is to harness the passion for football in Africa to improve health, nutrition and education via football clubs in the club's community. Our aim is to help each football club to become self-funding within three years, whilst putting the club at the centre of the local community's efforts to improve the lives of children and families living there.

The Inspiration behind the Soccer Babies project...

Peter Amoabil, a local teacher, has given up much of his adult life to founding and supporting the Babies FC. The passion for football in Ghana is overwhelming, and the Babies FC have been using that passion to help the community. The first condition of sponsorship was that membership of Babies FC was linked to school attendance which went up from 81% to 87%, partly as a result of the better nutrition we could provide on matchdays and at training, which eased the pressure on family budgets of team members.

The Babies F.C. last year entered the Ghanaian FA Youth League for the first time and each age group (U12s, U14s, and U17s) finished in the top 4 of the league, generating a huge boost in morale for the community. Plans for the club's future sponsorship package include: a local community clean-up project, distributing mosquito nets, and setting up a girls team within the club.