Team India celebrate their victory at the Street Child World Cup! All last week the world's first ever Street Child World Cup was taking place in Durban. We made it to the final day on Sunday, which also happened to be 'Human Rights Day' here in South Africa. I don't think that was a co-incidence. For the first time, these children have had a chance to be in the centre spotlight instead of forgotten and marginalised as street children so often are. The slogan for the World Cup came from a quote from a 14 yr old street child here in Durban:
'When they see me play football, they see me not as a street child, but as a person.'
Nine teams had been participating from England, South Africa, Nicaragua, Philippines, India, Tanzania, Ukraine, Vietnam and Brazil. The last 2 matches were due to be played in the afternoon. The first of which was South Africa vs Philippines. It was a good match and the presence of lots of South African supporters, complete with their vuvizelas and drums, made for a great atmosphere. South Africa eventually lost to the Philippines but it was an exciting match.
Then it was time for the final - India vs Tanzania. India won after some 'interesting' football. I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of football, I leave that to my boys to shout about. However the Tanzanian manager had a lot to shout about after one of their team got sent off for a tackle and then India scored on a penalty. I don't think the Tanzanian team were too happy to lose, but that was quickly forgotten as all the teams celebrated the end of what seems to have been a great week.
There have been some great stories coming out of the week too. You can read them on streetchildworldcup.org. They include the tale of a street child from Tanzania who had been traffiked to South Africa and had managed to escape and make his way to the Street Children World Cup where the team from Tanzania managed to locate his family at home and arrange for them to be reunited.
Sadly, even with all the awareness and media attention for Street Children this week, the Metro police in Durban were still going around rounding up any street children they could find and mis-treating them. There is a campaign to stop this ridiculous behaviour. It's thought that during the World Cup itself that the Metro police might round up all the children they can find before the matches start, ship them off up the coast somewhere and dump them in the middle of nowhere so that they aren't on the streets when all the fans arrive! The areas up the North Coast are really isolated and it would be difficult for children to make it back to the city without putting themselves at the mercy of truck drivers. Many would not make it back. Durban has several hundred street children and the local project working with them are trying hard to stop this round-up from happening. If you want to know more about them it's www.umthombo.org. On their website they chronicle all the dealings with the Metro Police and the latest on how the campaign is going. It gives a different perspective on a country preparing to 'Welcome the World' in a few months time.
Despite this embarrasingly awful behaviour by certain metro police, the Street Child World Cup has been a success. Keep your eyes on Brazil for 2014 for the next one!
