Czech football becomes involved with international aid project for first time
For a country of ten million, the Czech Republic can boast many world famous football stars, from Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech to Pavel Nedved of Juventus. What's more, the country currently stands at second in the world rankings. Now, reflecting the Czech Republic's status as a "world power", the Czech Football Association is about to become involved in an international aid project for the first time - linking up with an NGO in Africa. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby has the story.
"We have a project in Kenya called MYSA, meaning Mathari Youth Sports Association. Basically we bring youth from the slum and use football as a tool to mobilise them together, and give them an opportunity to seek jobs, to get jobs and empower them with knowledge on how they can go about it.
"And we hope in the very near future we're going to get a sort of development co-operation between the Czech football federation and...some project somehow."
George Wachira and a colleague from Nairobi have spent the last month in the Czech Republic. They came at the invitation of aid worker Robin Ujfalusi, whose cousin Tomas Ujfalusi plays for the Czech national team; the player has been instrumental in helping the Kenyan NGO build ties with the Czech Football Association.
Robin Ujfalusi has spent three months in Kenya working for the German NGO Street Football World. He explains the new Czech FA-backed project.
"Our goal is first to join football activities in slums, to organise tournaments for the poorest kids in the slum, probably during August because that's holiday time. And then we have some ideas, or some plan about marketing and fund-raising activities for MYSA."
Some people might say that people in Kenya or other African countries need food, not footballs. What does football give them?
"Football can give them opportunities, chances. It can give them the feeling that somebody cares about them. You know the whole development movement is moving from just giving development aid and food and money, and leaving them to it. It is moving towards development co-operation. And I think this project is perfect in that respect.
"We can teach them something from our knowledge, but we can learn a lot from them. Because as you probably know, the development between social work and development activities in our country and football is not that deep, and not so self-evident, so we can learn a lot over there."
Ties between football and aid may not be deep in the Czech Republic, but Robin Ujfalusi says Czech internationals, like his cousin Tomas, are finally beginning to understand that charity work is part of the game.
