Vote for your favorite finalist using football for social change. Three Global and Regional Winners are eligible to receive a total of USD $90,000 in prizes.  Winners will be announced August 25, 2010.

Below are the competition's twelve finalists.
Vote online here or use our new Facebook widget!

Rumah Cemara Football Program

• Using football as a universal language, Rumah Cemara overcomes local stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV/AIDS by hosting weekly football matches across West Java province that engage both HIV-positive and HIV-negative players.

Fútbol Con Corazón

• Fútbol Con Corazón is a grass-roots social change model which utilizes soccer's calling power to provide new life opportunities for 1,800 vulnerable boys and girls, ages 5-16, in Colombia’s Caribbean coast who live below the poverty line. This extra-curricular holistic program focuses on three areas: athletic training using the “soccer for peace” methodology; values-based experiential workshops focusing on gender, conflict resolution, and tolerance among other crucial values; and well balanced nutrition.

Team Iraq

• One of the few activities capable of unifying Iraq's youth population is football. This was shown when the Iraqi national team made up of dedicated professionals from all parts of Iraq won the AFC Asian Championship in the summer of 2007. Yet, the conflict has seen the complete destruction of grass-roots sports facilities and a widespread lack of youth football opportunities. Team Iraq has begun to turn this situation around. It uses the power of football to bring together young people from all ethnic, religious and social backgrounds, through a number of football-related initiatives with emphasis on creating local youth led programmes to help develop and empower and ultimately employ young people.

A GOAL, FOR A SMILE

• The project seeks to contribute with achieve a fair society with equal opportunities, addressing the different drawbacks faced by children and young people “living on the streets” in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. A social sport (football) will be the tool to inculcate values of peace, respect, tolerance, inclusion, discipline, life and citizenship. In this connection, work will be carried out with different foster homes, by incorporating social sport as an instrument of social transformation that creates opportunity and encourages direct beneficiaries to be good citizens and to contribute with the Bolivian society.

Goals for Girls - Goles y Metas para las chicas

• The purpose of our project, Goals for Girls (Goles y Metas para las chicas), is to build the self-esteem of young women through sports: by way of weekly practices, and friendly but competitive soccer matches, we instill in them the fundamentals of teamwork and self-discipline as well as the sense that their participation, whether on the field or in their community, makes a true difference.

WASH United

• Take advantage of the power of football to catalyse social change and engage top international and African football stars as role models to promote safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for all in Sub-Saharan Africa leading up to and following the 2010 World Cup.

Gender Equity in Sports for Social Change & HIV/AIDS awareness raising

• The 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, left many women survivors traumatised, with no self confidence, no self esteem, and hopeless at the bedrock of the society.A good number of them stay in rural areas hopeless,where they lack information in different issues which can affect their lives. Taking into account the percentage and the increasing trend on the issues relating to HIV/AIDS spread, also taking into account how women are part of the less empowered portion of our society, due to lack of self confidence, esteem and hope for the future, we found it very important to organise different sports events, through which we can raise awareness on HIV/AIDS prevention and on behaviour change, after a self confidence and esteem spirit is created within them.

Street Soccer USA's "I Play For"

• SSUSA believes ending homelessness is a team sport. We work with homeless teens and adults ages 15 and up, male and female, in 18 US cities. Inspired by the Homeless World Cup, Street Soccer USA has gone on to focus on developing programming excellence and a community based model for sport for development with the homeless. Through a systematic approach we build community and trust through sports with participants and volunteers, transforming the context within which they live from one of isolation, abuse, and marginalization, to one of community, purpose, and achievement; require participants to set 3, 6, and 12-month life goals; and empower participants by marrying clinical services to sport programming and providing access to educational/employment opportunities through our Jobs Academy.

Rehabilitation and Empowerment of Haitian Youth with Disabilities through Football

• In the absence of comprehensive, systematic rehabilitation services, football programs for persons with physical disabilities/visual impairment provide transforming experiences addressing physical/psychological rehabilitation goals, facilitation of reintegration/inclusion in society, enhanced health through increased self-care and decreases the onset of secondary medical conditions that are life compromisers. Haitian youth with disabilities are particularly vulnerable since the earthquake of January 12, 2010 that devastated the nation.

Soccer 4 Hope

• Soccer 4 Hope (S4H) aims to address the urgent need to empower women and girls, build their personal skills, and fight the pandemics of sexual violence and HIV/Aids. S4H exposes females to sport through a comprehensive life skills program. Soccer 4 Hope is providing fun sports programs in safe places for girls at schools and shelters, giving them a rare chance to play soccer, while providing them with knowledge, information, and opportunities to discuss and debate these sensitive issues. Our trained youth facilitators, called All Stars (staff) and MVPs (volunteer coaches) deliver an innovative Skills 4 Life curriculum, addressing the importance of our 7 Tools: integrity, self-esteem, self-awareness, focus, sense of humor, responsibility, and Ubuntu. Our modules also address the challenges these girls are currently facing, such as HIV/Aids, substance abuse, gender/risk, and leadership/conflict resolution. By teaching "Skills 4 Life" using our Soccer Leagues as a vehicle, S4H empowers the young women and girls of South Africa's disadvantaged communities. By learning to stand tall in a male-dominated sport, these women learn to stand tall in the male-dominated world.

A Ganar Alliance

• A Ganar uses the power of football to help at-risk youth in Latin America and the Caribbean develop and transform skills and lessons from the field of play into life skills and marketable job and entrepreneurship skills.

love.fútbol

• love.fútbol (LF) empowers impoverished communities to build simple, safe and accessible soccer fields for at-risk youth. Increasing both safety and access keeps children on the field and off of the streets. When they have the opportunity to fulfill their talents and passion, the game becomes a catalyst for youth development, hope, and inspiration.

To learn more about the finalists in the Changing Lives Through Football competition, visit changemakers.com/football. 

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