DEVELOPMENT:
From the Margins of Society, to Centre Field
Thessa Bos
CAPE TOWN, Sep 24 (IPS) - Nelson Mandela delivered his first speech there after leaving prison. The square has also been the scene of anti-apartheid protests and military parades. This coming week, however, Cape Town's Grand Parade will be a venue for something entirely different: street soccer matches played during the 2006 Homeless World Cup (HWC).
Starting Sunday and ending Sep. 30, about 500 people from around the world will take part in the tournament - the fourth of its kind. The Cup aims to provide far more than thrilling play or a showcase for football talent, however. Organisers hope that it will also give participants the impetus to escape their precarious life on the streets, hence the tournament slogan: '48 nations, one goal'.
The idea for the HWC came during the annual conference of the Glasgow-based International Network of Street Papers, in 2001. (Street papers are publications created to assist homeless people, in part through allowing them to keep a share of profits from the papers they sell.)
Harald Schmied, editor of the Austrian publication 'Megaphon', and Mel Young, co-founder of 'The Big Issue Scotland', were looking for a way to bring homeless people from various countries together, as well as others on the margins of society. They found it in football.
"It is like a universal language," says Richard Ishmail, managing director of 'The Big Issue South Africa', the street paper which is hosting this year's HWC. "Soccer mobilises people. Fighting homelessness...is all about connecting with societies, about forming teams and working together. That's what soccer does."
Football certainly mobilised Ataka Jansen, star of the Namibian team at the 2005 Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland.
After failing at school, he found himself on the streets of Swakopmund, a coastal city, stealing, mugging and drinking. Jansen then met a vendor of the Namibian version of 'The Big Issue' and decided to sell the paper as well, eventually qualifying to take part in last year's HWC.
"Not many people get the chance to represent their country," he said. "I felt incredibly proud."
Jansen's experience in Edinburgh sparked an even greater resolve to improve his situation: "I really wanted to uplift my life. I didn't want to be the same Ataka anymore."
As a result, he bade farewell to crime once and for all upon returning home from Scotland, and found a job as a trainee mechanic through 'The Big Issue'. "The Cup gave me a new spirit to do better," Jansen told IPS.
This experience is not unique. Research conducted a year after the 2005 Cup showed that 77 percent of players had changed their lives for the better after participating in the competition. Improvements included finding jobs, kicking drug habits and alcoholism, resuming education - and addressing problems of accomodation.
"The regular training sessions help players to develop a healthier life style. What's more, being part of a team, they learn to be responsible and disciplined," says Mattieu Rukoro, social development co-ordinator at 'The Big Issue Namibia'.
The "fun factor" is also important, he adds: "Travelling abroad, making new friends and being cheered on by thousands of people boosts the players' self-esteem. These guys have always been invisible. Suddenly they are being seen."
Angus Okanume is another HWC success story.
Born in Nigeria, he fled to Austria while a teenager because of fears of religious persecution, and became an asylum seeker. His life reached a turning point when he got a place in the Austrian homeless team, which won the 2003 Cup.
The media coverage that followed the squad's victory led to opportunities for players involved. In Okanume's case, he was put in a position where he could start German language courses, and go back to school. In addition, he was given a place at a semi-professional football club in one of Austria's regional leagues, then at FC Graz.
"The Cup gave me great motivation, I really wanted to move on in my life," says Okanume, on the HWC website.
Twelve participants in the 2005 Cup now make part of their living from football, as coaches or players in professional and semi-professional teams.
Jansen, captain of the 2006 Namibian team, may be next in line. Just before leaving for South Africa he was told that Civics, the squad that triumphed in last year's Namibia Premier League, may offer him a contract.
"The Homeless World Cup has proved that sport, and in our case football, has enormous power to create real and lasting change," says Young, who is now HWC president. " Cape Town promises to be the best Homeless World Cup yet, with double the number of countries represented than at previous tournaments."
The 48 national teams that will be competing in this South African coastal city are drawn from countries as various as Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Italy, Ukraine, the United States and Australia. In all, 13 Africa nations are represented.
Over 10,000 homeless people have been involved in the run-up to the tournament, in pre-competition national trials and street soccer leagues.
Even those who don't take to the pitch may find their lives changed.
"The Cup touches the lives of our many volunteers and spectators, who will look at homeless people differently, long after this tournament is gone," says Ishmail.
But, he also sounds a note of caution about the effect of the HWC on the lives of players, noting that there are ultimately no quick fixes to homelessness and its attendant problems: "Moving up from poverty and homelessness is a process which takes time." (END/2006)
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