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During the Olympics in Rio we hosted Olympic-styled Games for street-connected young people.
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Every child needs a legal identity, protection from violence and education.
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Street Child United in North America
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The countdown timer has begun!
Less than 100 days to go until the Street Child World Cup 2026. The first ever in Mexico City.
150 days until our Young Leaders stand at a General Assembly at the United Nations, just before the FIFA World Cup final in New York, and present their demands directly to those in power.
This blog is my attempt to capture what it actually feels like to get there. The magic and generosity. The favours and near-misses. The bravery, the fear, and the stubborn belief that the world will somehow conspire with us to make the Street Child World Cup possible.
No birth certificates, passports, visas. Why even try?
If you looked at it coldly, nobody in their right mind would try to organise a World Cup for street-connected young people. Many of the young people we work with do not yet have birth certificates, passports or visas, and any sensible person might walk away. But the prize is too great to walk away from: a global stage where millions of street-connected young people can have their lives transformed, and where 18 girls’ teams and 14 boys’ teams will come together in Mexico City for congress sessions, arts activities and football, united in demanding their rights to education, identity, protection from violence and gender equality. Walking away is not an option.
The unsung heroes I get to work with.
This is our fifth Street Child World Cup. I have learned that it only happens through absolute determination, holding our nerve, meticulous preparation and the dedication of incredible team leaders around the world. For most of the year we are a five-a-side team at Street Child United. As the tournament approaches, 60 or 70 extraordinary volunteers, supporting teams like DRC and Bangladesh, arrive and help push the whole thing over the line.
David is our Team Manager. He lives in the detail and does the difficult, brilliant work of supporting the project leaders who bring young people to the World Cup. I wake up every day knowing he is somewhere in the world making sure birth certificates arrive, passports are processed and that everyone stays aligned with why we do this, so that these young people can go home and help create lasting change in their countries.
David is Mexican and works for Fútbol Más, our fantastic partner in Mexico City. He has already led a team from Mexico to the Street Child World Cup in Doha in 2022 and to our second Street Child Cricket World Cup in Chennai in 2023, so he knows exactly what it takes to guide teams and support street-connected young people at our events. This week he is back home in Mexico City, visiting our campus in Oaxtepec, Morelos.
The site we will be using has come through our partnership with the Mexican Ministry of Health, and it is extraordinary. There is a beautiful football pitch with a small stadium, an Olympic-size swimming pool, conference facilities, spaces for arts activities, and beds. Lots and lots of beds.
Moments I’ll never forget.
Beds might sound like a small detail, but they stay with me. I remember asking Sno, from the South African team at our first Street Child World Cup in Durban in 2010, what the best thing about the tournament was.
He did not hesitate.
“The beds. I have never slept on a bed before. I kept falling off.”
I also remember a young person from Team Pakistan in Doha, who sprinted into his room, launched himself onto the bed in delight and bounced straight off again. The mattress was rock hard, he looked mortified in front of his teammates, and then the whole room dissolved into laughter.
In Oaxtepec, thankfully, the beds are both plentiful and comfy. David is making sure that every young person, team leader, volunteer, media guest and staff member will be housed comfortably and safely, that the campus is a secure, welcoming space where everyone can breathe out and just be.
When bringing the world to Mexico City, details like Halal food and Wi-Fi matter.
Yesterday we held the fourth meeting of our Local Advisory Group, chaired by the wonderful Rachel Brazier, the UK’s Deputy Ambassador in Mexico. Having a local advisory group is part of our DNA now. It stops us stumbling into avoidable mistakes and helps us understand the culture we are arriving into.
This group is a bit of a dream team. Marion Reinders, Grace Ahern from Women in Football, former volunteer Millie Rose and of course the brilliant Oliver Balhatchet. In the space of one meeting they helped solve a very practical challenge, finding a halal butcher in Mexico City for our friends from Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt. It happened to coincide with the start of Ramadan, so to everyone observing, Ramadan Kareem.
We also threw them a problem that I would never have known how to approach. How on earth do we get high-quality Wi-Fi at the football pitch? Someone immediately suggested a ten-day Starlink contract. It would never have crossed my mind, yet it might turn out to be the obvious solution. We are exploring it.
Connectivity might sound mundane, but if you are trying to build a global platform for young people’s voices, it suddenly becomes vital. Getting their stories out quickly and compellingly depends on it. Good Wi-Fi is unlikely to make a highlight reel, yet it might be the reason someone in another part of the world hears a new voice they cannot ignore.
In the DRC, the paperchase is on.
This week has also involved a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with Team DRC, based in Lubumbashi in the south of the country. We will have both a girls’ and a boys’ team representing the Democratic Republic of Congo. Birth certificates for all the girls are secured and passport applications are in. Now comes the cajoling phase. Project leaders, local allies, embassy officials, anyone who can help move paperwork from one desk to another, all become part of the story.
I am constantly amazed by the commitment of team leaders. They are resourceful, determined and endlessly creative. They will do almost anything to make sure the young people they work with get the chance to represent their country at the Street Child World Cup.
Forhad has adopted 33 young people to date. What?
In Bangladesh, project leader Forhad has become a legend in our office. He has worked tirelessly to simplify the birth registration process for young people who have lived and worked on the streets. Then he made an extraordinary decision. Together with his wife and children, he legally adopted all ten young people on his team so that they could apply for passports.
After three Street Child World Cups, our hero Forhad is now in loco parentis for 33 young people. Thirty-three. I still have to read that number twice. All hail Forhad.
I am somebody.
Alongside all the logistics and paperwork, we have also been reflecting this week on the people who inspired the spirit of what we do. As a human rights and dignity campaign that uses sport and the arts, we owe a huge debt to the leaders of the civil rights movement in North America. We were deeply saddened to hear of Jesse Jackson’s passing on the 17th of February.
We shared his unforgettable appearance on Sesame Street, where he stands in front of a group of children and leads them in the poem “I Am Somebody”. That line has become our strapline and our anthem. It has been recited at every Street Child World Cup since 2010, shouted at the tops of young people’s lungs in stadiums and meeting rooms across the world.
Thank you, Jesse Jackson, for giving us those words and that courage.
Today also brought a reminder of how many different worlds have quietly supported this movement. I received a cheque from Hospital Records, the drum and bass label who, under the leadership of Tony Colman, set “I Am Somebody” to music in 2013. A decade on, that song is still helping us pay the bills. You can check it out here.
Thank you, Hospital Records. You too are somebody.
Cricket legends back Bulawayo.
I have just come back from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where in 2027 we will host the third Street Child Cricket World Cup. This morning, over breakfast, I found myself sitting with arguably the greatest Zimbabwean cricketer of all time, Andy Flower. Besides his accolades as an international wicketkeeper and batter, he is also the former England head coach, London Spirit coach, Royal Challengers Bangalore coach and IPL trophy winner.
I explained what we are trying to do through these tournaments. He did not need much convincing. Within minutes he was offering to reach out to his extraordinary network in the UK, India and Zimbabwe on our behalf. A little later Dinesh Karthik, renowned former Indian cricketer, commentator and coach, who just happened to be having coffee nearby in St John’s Wood, joined us. He responded with the same generosity and enthusiasm.
Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Dinesh.
We’re all in for the Street Child World Cup 2026.
Part of me is already looking ahead to Zimbabwe in September 2027. I can see the cricket grounds, the congress sessions, the young leaders taking the microphone. But first we have a World Cup to deliver in Mexico, and then the I Am Somebody tour that will follow, culminating at the United Nations just before the FIFA World Cup final.
For now, that is today’s record of the Street Child World Cup. Thank you for reading, and for walking this road with us.
John