Street Child United and Rawbank Create Football for Good Programme to Support Children in the DRC

Street Child United (SCU) is delighted to announce a three-year partnership with Rawbank to run the “1 million d’espoirs” development programme dedicated to sport and improving the skills and independence of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

The partnership will be implemented in two phases; the first two years of the programme will provide a ‘train-the-trainer’ format with selected partner organisations working on the ground in the DRC. SCU will provide a tailored curriculum that delivers football sessions and human rights workshops in conjunction with SCU values, upskilling selected coaches, to deliver to hundreds of young people. 

The programme, is built to be sustainable with participating projects taking full ownership once SCU has provided all training components. This will further increase the impact and reach over forthcoming years. The second phase will run from the start of 2025 and will focus on capacity building across advocacy, media, and fundraising, so that the DRC can send a boys and girls team to participate at the Street Child World Cup in 2026 in North America. 

Speaking about the partnership, SCU founder and CEO John Wroe comments: “This is such an exciting partnership derived from a shared common goal, that young people in the DRC who have endured years of struggle following ongoing conflict and widespread disease, will now receive opportunity and hope that inspires belief in themselves to create a better future”.

“We believe that one football impacts 30 children, it teaches the values of community building, teamwork, healthy exercise, competition, and we think, respect for rules, and might just create some football stars for the future, just imagine the impact of 100,000 soccer balls, and this is just the start!” said Mustafa Rawji, CEO of Rawbank

From 2024, 100,000 footballs will be distributed as part of the programme to enable more street connected children in the DRC to have the opportunity to play football.