by Gemma Pitcher.

Photo credit: Gemma Pitcher

“Maths is too easy!” boasts ten year old Edouard. “I don’t care about it, but I have to go to the lessons, or they don’t let me play soccer.” He chucks his exercise book to the ground to prove his point, and starts to lace up his football boots. All around him, kids are hastening to scramble out of their one-room classroom and into their soccer gear. Edouard is one of 50-odd Haitian children, mostly boys, who get two hours of football training for free provided they turn up to two hours of school first. All of them come from Cité Soleil, Haiti’s most notorious slum, and for most, football represents their best hope of leaving it.

Organiser Dessources Emmanis blasts his whistle referee-style in an attempt to impose some sort of order as balls, boots and uniforms are scattered everywhere and the kids push and shout in their eagerness to get to the practice field. He’s a melancholy 32-year-old who rarely smiles, but his dedication is impressive – as an unpaid volunteer, he organises classroom lessons and coaches three junior teams six days a week. He is helped out by a rotating group of about 25 volunteer teachers and coaches, all of whom came up through the programme themselves.

“I used to be a teacher in one of the schools here” he tells me. “But since the earthquake, I haven’t worked”. He doesn’t charge for the soccer training, or the school lessons. “We try to get donations where we can, and the Haitian Football Federation provides us with some equipment, but we don’t charge and we never turn anyone away” he says. In the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake, Emmanis has relocated the project from the increasingly overcrowded and lawless centre of Cité Soleil to one of the villages on the outskirts. “Our kids were at risk of falling in with the gangs”, he says sternly. “We didn’t want to risk them becoming delinquents.”

The programme has been running for fifteen years, with an impressive record of success. Haitian national team defender Jean Paulin its most successful ex-pupil, and other former participants now play for club teams in Martinique and Benin. Haiti didn’t qualify for the World Cup – the team is number 91 in the FIFA rankings – but the kids are unanimous in which team they are supporting instead. “Brazil, Brazil” they chorus. “Ronaldhino, Ronaldhino”.  The project is named after former FIFA head Joao Havelange in honour of his humanitarian work.

Once at the training ground, the kids are put through a rigorous set of warm up exercises. Ringed by banana trees and with distant hills in the background, the field, humming with well-ordered activity, is a peaceful sight, and it’s hard to believe that just beyond it is the dust, deprivation and chaos of the shantytown. “We’re teaching them discipline, teamwork, the importance of effort” says Emmanis. “They’re going to need it, living here”.

To find out how to help the football project, email joaohavelange@yahoo.fr