The Ball 2010

Sebastian Wunderlich took the undergraduate football for development course at the University of Erfurt that we were offering — appropriately called The Spirit of Football. He became a valuable member of the seminar and now he is on the board of directors of Spirit of Football e.V. in Erfurt, Germany. Sebastian wants to use the positive power of football to do some good in society. Through the German development education progamme ASA, he was able to do an internship at the NGO Search and Groom (S&G) in Nigeria.

It was there he met Yomi Kuku, S&G’s Executive Director. Sebas introduced me to Yomi. We connected Yomi to Special Olympics Nigeria and together they planned some events for The Ball’s arrival in Nigeria.

Search & Groom lads meet up with The Ball

We met Yomi at the Ikeja Youth sports center in Lagos, Nigeria to talk about S&G.

Yomi Kuku, Executive Director of Search & Groom Nigeria

Andrew: What exactly are you guys doing at S&G Yomi?

Yomi: Here we use football as a tool to communicate with disadvantaged young people to encourage them to live a life if integrity, self dignity and to realize their full potential. We use the instrument of fair play football to achieve that. We have been doing that for over 8 years in Lagos, Nigeria.

Are there some stories you can share with us?

There are many. Too many. But, let me share two.

There was a player, Joseph Olamiju, who was down mentally, physically and spiritually. After joining us in 2005, we took him out of Nigeria twice — to the Homeless World Cup in South Africa and in Denmark and returned to become a coach on a full scholarship at S&G. Now he is the coach of the team. In Milan in 2009, he took the Homeless World Cup team of Nigeria to the semi-finals for the first time in our history.

We have taken about 50 extremely disadvantaged boys (formerly homeless) out on international trips to Europe, Australia and South Africa and not a single one has absconded. They have always returned back to Nigeria. Next December, we are going to be in Brazil to represent Nigeria. In June, we are going to be in South Africa to represent Nigeria at the FIFA Football for Hope Festival.

Who are the heroes at S&G?

People always want to talk about Messi, but we are not talking about Valdes, or Carlos Puyol. We only see Messi because he appears to be the point man. But Messi will tell you, like he always tells the media, that without the team he is not a footballer. Without teamwork you can never reach anything. Search & Groom has been sustained through synergies and teamwork. These guys (the kids) are the real heroes. Next September, they are going to be in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to represent Nigeria at the Homeless World Cup. In June this year we are going to represent Nigeria at the FIFA Football for Hope forum in Johannesburg

What do you think about The Ball, Yomi?

The Ball is breaking down barriers across tribes, race, social status, and economic status. Special Olympics is doing a lot of great work with people who are intellectually challenged. Through The Ball, we have been able to open up a partnership with Special Olympics.

One Search & Groom and SO Unified Football team

The other Search & Groom and SO unified football team

Through The Ball we are getting to build a relationship with our mentally challenged friends. It has connected us to people who were not aware of what we are doing. One Ball. One World.

Time and again on this journey we have heard a very similar story. Parents of intellectually challenged children are embarrassed of their own child’s disability. Traditionally, parents bearing such children have been outcast from their tribal group –their inability to bear so-called normal children representative of weakness.

Those children even today are often not integrated into society or even worse they are emotionally and physically mistreated. One of Special Olympics’ biggest challenges in Africa is finding children with intellectual disabilities and convincing parents to let those children participate in SO’s programmes.

Andrew met up with Riva Offong, mother of Treasure, an intellectually challenged child who is a member of Special Olympics Nigeria.

Andrew: “Please tell us about your daughter.”

Riva: “My daughter is 26, her name is Treasure and she is down syndrome but she is okay she does everything herself. She is independent and I am quite proud of her and we all love her.”

Andrew: What is the norm here for parents with intellectually challenged children?

Riva: The norm is that you hide them. You don’t bring them out. Which is most unfortunate because then they don’t do anything. They don’t amount to anything. Treasure travels everywhere she wants to go. She is quite independent. I know of some parents who have autistic children who lock them up. Actually, these children might be, like they say, mentally challenged. It is a matter of teaching and being patient with them. Treasure reads and writes and sings songs because we have encouraged her and allowed her freedom of thought.

Andrew: Do you have a message for parents of intellectually challenged children?

Riva: Okay you have them. It is not by choice. It is by God’s divine will. There must be a purpose why they are here with you. So encourage them as much as a normal child. Let them be normal, because they can be normal. They might look different but they are okay. So don’t hide them. Bring them out and be proud of them. They are your children and you should be proud of them.

Special Olympics Nigeria embrace The Ball like no one before them.

Adeola Oladugba, project manager at Special Olympics, tells Andrew that when he initially took The Ball on as a project it was clear to him what The Ball was all about.

Adeola Oladugba, Special Olympics Nigeria Project Coordinator

“We talk about unity, we talk about fair play, we talk about respect, we talk about inclusion. These are all things that The Ball represents. The slogan that we at Special Olympics Nigeria gave to The Ball: One Ball One World is born out of the fact that this leather, round, item can do so many things in our lives and in the community. The race may differ. The belief may differ. The culture may differ. But with this round leather there is one, there is unity, there is inclusion, there is respect. It has been a wonderful experience for me.”
Adeola Oladugba

Unified football involves mixed teams that are made up of equal numbers of Special Olympics athletes (those with an intellectual disability) and non-intellectually challenged athletes playing together.

Unified Football

After the Unified Football matches the Special Olympics Lagos community come together for a photo with The Ball. Appropriately, the banner in the background that welcomes The Ball to Lagos reads One Ball. One World.

One Ball. One World

The Ball, as ever, takes central stage.

Having a Ball in the middle

Anyone can play the beautiful game. It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, old or young, female or male, and it certainly does not matter whether or not you have an intellectual disability. The Ball is for everyone. One Ball. One World.

Another day, another DHL cargo flight — this time a short hop lasting just 30 minutes from Benin to Lagos, Nigeria.

Captain’s Ball on board the flight

Ball’s eye view from the cockpit, coming in to land in Lagos.

The Ball and Andrew arrive in Lagos. Nigeria is the 20th country en route to Johannesburg. What awaits them in Nigeria? Andrew is slighty worried as Nigeria has been in the news recently for the kidnapping of foreign nationals. The Ball is relaxed as ever.

Football as we know it began with a match at Battersea Park in London on January 9th 1864. Voodoo’s origins come from Ouidah, Benin. “You cannot talk about Voodoo without talking about Ouidah” says Casim Marcos from DHL Benin. And there would be no football without a ball.

The Ball has received many blessings en route and we think that one from a practitioner of Voodoo would be a fantastic addition. We arrive in Ouidah and visit the mayor; he stamps The Ball.

The Ball gets stamped by the Mayor of Ouidah

“We would dearly love to introduce The Ball to a Voodoo practitioner and see if we can get a blessing for it,” says Andrew. The mayor knows what to do. After gathering his councilors for a photo with The Ball, he consults an aide and we are led off to meet a Voodoo practitioner, but just any Voodoo practitioner. He is Houngwe Towakon Guedehoungu, the so-called Pope of Voodoo, and the leading practitioner of Voodoo on the planet.

All hands on The Ball in front of Ouidah’s City Hall

Andrew breathes a sigh of relief that the snake pit he was supposed to visit on the way to the Voodoo Pope is closed – we are too late. There will be no pythons wrapped around his neck and no tip-toeing through piles of slithering snakes, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom style, no, not today. As the sun goes down, we follow our police escort, sirens blazing, through the narrow dirt back streets of Benin’s cleanest city. We arrive and are escorted into the Vatican of Voodoo, through a courtyard displaying various carvings representing Voodoo gods and led into the Pope’s private meeting room.

A mermaid shows the way into Voodoo’s Vatican

The compound’s inner walls are filled with art work depicting Voodoo’s beliefs and the different gods of Voodoo worship.

Artwork on an inner wall

After a few minutes the Voodoo Pope enters. Special Olympics’ Director explains to him what The Ball is all about. The Voodoo Pope examines The Ball, looks intensely at all those gathered around, and then calls upon many different Voodoo gods.

The Voodoo Pope listens as we talk about The Ball

Consulting with them and using his powers (as well as those he inherited from his father) he gives The Ball a benediction, telling us that we are on a noble mission. “The gods will protect The Ball and its carriers.” The good news doesn’t stop there. We find out that the gods will also protect the World Cup in South Africa and ensure that it will be a big event for all of Africa. He calls for an African team to win the World Cup.

The Voodoo Pope calls for an African team to win the World Cup

Our highlight Special Olympics event in Benin is a gathering of intellectually challenged athletes, their parents, Special Olympics coaches, administrators and 20 plus volunteers for a free healthy athletes medical screening followed by a Unified Football match.

Volunteers with The Ball

The Minister of Sport arrives late (not unusual for dignitaries anywhere) but the screening can’t wait for him (and nor should it).

Waiting for the Minister to arrive

The doctors, nurses, volunteers, parents and athletes have limited time and all the athletes need to be screened. That is the priority. Athletes’ eyes are tested (Opening Eyes) and where necessary prescription glasses are ordered for them.

Healthy Eyes

Athletes’ teeth are checked (Special Smiles), where necessary dental appointments are made and each athlete receives a tooth brush and a tube of toothpaste.

Special Smiles

Athletes’ have their ability to listen checked (Healthy Hearing) and appointments made with specialists. Athletes are given a thorough medical examination (Med Fest) and provided with healthy, locally-produced food (avocados, apples, oranges and pineapples) to take home.

Healthy food is distributed to the athletes

Special Olympics trains doctors, nurses, dentists and volunteers so that they can learn how to work with special needs people. After the screening, the Special Olympics community comes together on the field of the national football stadium — Stade de l’Amitié — for a game of Unified Football after which everyone signs The Ball.

A Special Olympics girls team kicks The Ball about

Athletes and The Ball in the Stadium

Special Olympics athletes in Benin with The Ball

In countries like Benin, where there are inadequate resources for the provision of public health-care, Special Olympics is offering free health-care to intellectually challenged athletes. Healthy Athletes is an important programme and we are honoured to be there.

We visit the Centre de Promotion Sociale Cotonou — a social rehabilitation center set-up in 1992 and funded by the Beninese Ministry of Family, Social Protection and Solidarity. The welcome is fantastic — intellectually challenged children and their parents and teachers of the school sing and dance — welcoming us into their center.

Welcome to our center

This education center acts as a stepping stone for intellectually challenged children, aiming to help them find places in schools and liaising with their families to build a supportive home base. Special Olympics Benin is one of the center’s partners. Two Special Olympics coaches lead sports sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays every week and on Saturdays they run training sessions at the national stadium.

All hands on The Ball

Special Olympics also run their healthy athletes screening, where doctors and dentists come to the center twice a year and run complete medical checks. Children receive free dental care and are supplied with reading glasses if they need them. All of this is funded through donations to Special Olympics. The presentation of The Ball evokes great interest and every single person at the center (intellectually challenged or not) kicks or heads and signs The Ball, then it is time for a kick-about. It is much too hot for football so the game doesn’t last long.

One of the children took a special liking to The Ball and didn’t want to let go…

My Ball

Even the youngest members of the center signed The Ball

Young signatories

They sang a touching farewell song as we left the centre.

Waves goodbye

The memories will last much longer and the smiles on the faces of everyone are a testimony to the fabulous work being done by Special Olympics and to the magnetism and magic of The Ball.

As carriers of The Ball, we realize that we have a huge responsibility to ensure that this one ball makes it all the way to South Africa. Imagine, The Ball is lost or stolen, what are we going to do? The Ball has 6000 unique signatures on it and about one hundred stamps from the 18 countries visited so far. We MUST get this one ball safely to the World Cup.

Regular police officers keeping an eye on The Ball

Starting in Togo, securing The Ball and its carriers became a priority for our partners and even a matter of national pride. “God forbid if anything happens to The Ball in our country”, might aptly describe what our hosts were thinking. This was especially understandable in Togo, where the nation had recently suffered the national tragedy of a terrorist attack on the Togolese national football team in Angola. Benin seems to have gone one step further.

Crossing into Benin we find out that two national guard policemen have been assigned to protect The Ball and that The Ball requires a police escort at all times.

Andrew and The Ball’s protectors

The Ball requires a police escort at all times in Benin

Andrew’s dad used to give him a great piece of advice regarding being in possession of a ball in a dangerous situation — “If in doubt, kick it out”, he used to say. There isn’t much chance of that happening in Benin.

Togo is safe, almost too safe. There is a police escort, ready to take me and The Ball to every event and there is a minder, sitting outside of my hotel room ready to protect The Ball from would-be thieves.

Safe Ball

The Togolese government has got heavily involved in the Ball’s journey; we have met top dignitaries including the Prime Minister, and everyone is very concerned to make sure that The Ball doesn’t go missing in Togo. I imagine that the concern stems from the African championships in Angola in February and the machine-gunning of the buses carrying the Togolese football team. That issue is still a hot one in Togo and very politicized.

Losing The Ball in Togo on Togolese watch is not in their interests. Our philosophy is that The Ball must be played with as often as possible and by as many people as possible. The spirit of The Ball is about trust. Sure, the playing of The Ball to a stranger contains an element of risk. Yes, someone could try and steal The Ball but that is very unlikely. It is more likely that the person receiving The Ball will smile and play. The interactions we are having are overwhelmingly positive. These random encounters are what The Ball is all about.

Against the best intended advice I take The Ball to the Coca Cola sponsored event at the beach. A man on horseback rides The Ball up and down the beach.

Horse-back Ball

Acrobats on stilts perform with The Ball

High Ball

A woman carries The Ball in a basket on her head

Head Ball

The Ball is juggled in a Coca-Cola sponsored competition on a stage with a crowd in excess of 2000 people watching on.

Juggle Ball

During the juggling competition The Ball ends up in the crowd. Where is it? Panic sets in. Ohhhh, there it is…

Lost Ball

And as the sun goes down young men and women dance freestyle with The Ball.

Dance Ball

Put your hands up for The Ball

Hand Ball

I like to play in the Unified Football events but there is no space for me this time. I try to convince the organizers that I’d be a good addition to one of the two starting line ups but the teams are picked, warmed up and ready to play.

Special Olympics’ banner welcomes The Ball to Togo

Before kick off players on both teams give The Ball a guard of honour to welcome it onto the pitch.

The Ball receives a guard of honour

I take my place in the small crowd assembled for the UNICEF sponsored match. The game unfolds and it is impossible to tell the Special Olympics athletes apart from the rest. All players on both teams are talented footballers and the quality of football is very good. Special Olympics athletes can play football as well as anyone.

The game ends at 1-1 and a penalty shoot-out is needed to separate the teams. The yellow team wins but both teams come together to celebrate as one and to sing and dance together. How often do you get to see that in football?

The winning team wore yellow

Many thanks to our partner the Goethe-Institut for donating some footballs.

What would Goethe have said about this game?

This game was about having fun and about participating and about friendship. Sure, both teams try to win but losing is insignificant. Isn’t this the spirit of football?