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ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Mfangano Foundation was started in 2011 by Nicholas Olambo, who had the vision to develop a football program on Mfangano Island which is situated on Lake Victoria, Kenya. It took him years to find the resources, organising the logistics to find just one or two balls could prove challenging. This may seem a bit unreal to many of us who participate in football in the UK. Training back then on Mfanagno often just meant that Nicholas and the kids exercising without a ball with him trying to help offer what he could to educate on the benefits of health and fitness as well as community, health farming and agriculture.
After years of perseverance the foundation has grown at a steady pace. At the end of 2021 Tom Martin an FA certified coach in the UK at the time who joined the team through a volunteer programme. After just one month on the island Tom was impressed with the love this small island in Lake Victoria with a population of approx 30,000 people had for the beautiful game. Combined with the talents of many of the young players he believed he could leverage their passion to help produce much better outcomes for the children involved in the foundation. These have ranged from healthcare, educational workshops, regular foootball training sessions, team building and tournaments. The foundation is also able to provide the children with sanitary items, footwear, clothing that has helped foster a united community spirit with the foundation striving to be something the locals could believe in. We believed that just one well supported football club that could deliver consistently could have a major impact empowering the young people with better skills and education. Since these developments the foundation is pleased to have announced that it has placed over 20 boys in girls achieve a better education at schools through sports scholarships. This is something that continues to grow and brings us enormous pride as an organisation as we believe this hugely underlines the positive change we can bring in enhancing the players education beyond their footballing activities.
In the first two years the academy grew steadily. Soon onboarding more young people onto the programme on the island providing consistent training sessions and skillsets that wouldn't have the chance to dramatically improve their prospects and mindsets. Both Nicholas and Tom realised football could help empower the young people on the island especially with the community known as, Wakinga which is the small community where the project is based.
After booking to stay another month during which he coached the kids daily, both boys and girls, during the holidays all the teams would compete in tournaments and friendly matches. Kids from all parts of the island would show up to the sessions and after eventually returning to the UK he would start this fundraiser. Tom soon returned to Kenya where up to 100 children would now come to each training session during holidays times. Nicholas, who hosted Tom continue to build their friendship and passion for the game was only rivalled by the enthusiasm of the children to enjoy themselves through this new outlet in their community.
Our fundraising continues as our network grows. We would hugely appreciate your support through this ongoing fundraiser here to leave a lasting change on the grounds where the project was founded. With the support of Sena Primary School we hope to bring more joy through sport to young lives on Mfangano Island. We would hugely appreciate your support.
OUR FUNDRAISER
We believe in the talents of these players who we want to equip with better facilities. We have already helped many kids who were part of our programme to find sports and football scholarships to better schools in Kenya.
The fundraiser would not only provide footballing equipment but also basic living materials that often hold these girls and boys back from being able to attend training sessions and compete in tournaments. Specifically, the girls often miss sessions because they lack access to sanitary towels which allow them to engage with the activities provided by the academy. Providing them with access to these $1 towels would allow them to attend sessions and matches which previously could have forced them to risk severe embarrassment.
Our program aligns itself not just with footballing activities but plenty of other initiatives on the island that promotes sustainability, agriculture, clean water and tackling the global issues that we all face due to global waste and climate change.
Basic logistics on the island can be more complicated than you'd imagine. There are very limited public services. This forces some of the kids to walk miles barefoot in order to be able to play. Our academy aims to help provide funds for things like motorbikes or buses that would help to run the kids to and from practices and games. One of our objectives is to reach children across the island which has a population of approx 30,000 people.
This can only be achieved by enhancing our ability to transport the kids to our day to day activities. These are all services that we may take for granted but can be the difference between reaching a child or not.
ABOUT ME
As the person who started this fundraiser I visited the island numerous time staying up to two or three months at a time. The reaction has been extraordinary since I arrived and with the holidays recently starting we have up to, and sometimes over 100 kids at each session (although unfortunately only 3 coaches). The enthusiasm they show for football is incredible and I want to continue to help them as these young women and men who are turning into young adults are now finding new opportunities that were previously seen as unachievable or incredibly difficult. This in turn inspires the young boys and girls back on Mfanagno.
However, these kids cannot participate in matches without boots and we cannot play games without a kit, balls or paying the general fees for match officials that all football clubs require. If you can help support this fundraiser a large portion of those funds will go towards this basic equipment.
Having worked at a private football academy in London and having been a part of many different teams for many years at school, university and club level in both the UK and Spain I have never seen such challenging conditions to develop players.
I honestly had no idea what target I should have set for this fundraiser but have gained some insight from one other charitable project on the island started by Angela Yuan which also looks to provide more of the population with clean water. Any money that you would be able to donate during this Christmas break is some of the only funding we will receive in the near future. The government shows an incredibly small amount of initiative and interest in providing basic services for the community which has encouraged me to put this page out to almost everyone I know or any football club or project I have ever been involved with.
The ability of some of these young players is actually very good. If one or two of our players were ever able to play at a professional level either within Kenya or abroad I believe this would have a life changing effect on thousands of kids who live on Mfangano. That may well be way off from now and is definitely not our only goal. We are looking to help give these kids an education and chance to even have an opportunity to play football and better themselves through out academy and education.