We’ve seen a lot of progress this April as the Summer Cycle of the Fairplay School begins, Althea makes the final squad for the National Team, the Metro Manila Futsal League kicks off, and much more!

Fairplay School

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The Summer Cycle has begun! Every year many of the kids look forward to the Summer Cycle. During these 5 weeks the kids have normal classes during the mornings but in the afternoons they join the clubs they’ve signed up to. These include dance, drumming, art, music, and sport. It makes for lively, loud, and fun afternoons.

INTERNS

We also have three new interns joining the team for the summer to help with the clubs. April Joy (first from view on right) and Jade Ann (just behind April Joy) are two of our sponsored kids. April Joy is going into her last year of Senior High and was part of Team Philippines for the Street Child World Cup in Brazil, 2014. April Joy is teaching the dance class in the afternoon. Jade Ann just graduated from High School. She’s assisting with the many Kinder I kids. Our third intern, April John, is actually our neighbour who saw there were applications for interns. He is studying accountancy in College and helps with extra classes for kids who have only recently started to drop in to the Fairplay School.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Summer Cycle will be the focal point of May with three weeks to go in the cycle. In the third week the kids will perform what they’ve learned so far so look out for some highlights on that next time round. We are also hoping to have the baseline for our kids in each of our five key areas to measure their growth; emotional intelligence, physical development, growth mindset, critical thinking, and academic. This will prove key to tracking their growth and seeing how much more the kids learn with us then they did before.

Payatas Sports Center

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Some of the biggest news at the Payatas Sports Center is the completion of the walls and netting around the area. It actually makes a big difference as people can no longer jump over the wall and into the Sports Center. Sometimes this would mean the kids would jump over and play, but the problem was with adults jumping over and burning trash, throwing garbage everywhere, and making a mess of the place.

So now the area is secure! We’d like to give a huge thanks to the William Hill Manila who through their CSR program Close to Home sponsored this renovation as well as Poverty Child, a UK based charity who you’ll be hearing more about in future Highlights. The next step in this project is to build changing rooms and toilets so that everything the team needs is available on site. Hosting tournaments, leagues, and company events, we therefore have a complete and much better looking venue!

The renovation from WH’s Close to Home support, also makes the training sessions easier to conduct. With Summer, the kids are training every day with U12, U14s, and U16s all with daily sessions available. Payatas Sports Center is now a safe space away from the densely packed houses, where the kids can simply play. One of our older girls said “It’s nice playing football, you can forget about your problems”, as she was dealing with a breakup.

Althea in the National U15 Girls Team

Many of you will also remember Althea, who was selected for the National Youth Team Training Camp. We are now pleased to say that Althea is part of the final 23 girl squad heading to Laos for the AFF U15 Girls Championship! She will fly out on May 5 as the Philippines prepare to play against Singapore, Cambodia, Timor Leste, and Indonesia. The Philippines have drawn a great group and are likely favourites to qualify for the Semi Finals as Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, the usual big guns, are all in Group A. It also means Payatas FC has had a player in a National Youth Team in each of the last three years now.

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Finally, the Metro Manila Futsal League (above) kicked off over the weekend. There are 28 teams from across Manila involved; 12 teams in the U12 Division, 9 teams in the U14 Division, and 7 teams in the U16 Division. You can see more about the Metro Manila Futsal League here.

WHAT’S NEXT: Next we’ll be constructing the changing room facilities for the Sports Center before finding the funding to make bleachers at the side, a stock room and room for the security guards (a local family who can be supported through this), and finally the second court! This will help us double the number of kids playing sports with us so they have a safe space to play,, redycng. Combined with our Sports Not Scavenging Program there is some great potential here.

Sustainability and Social Business

OutKast Football Club held their Community Day early on in April. This was a fun event with one of the best Women’s Football Teams in the country. Check out the photo album here.

We’ve also laid the groundwork for a busy month for our social business in May.

WHAT’S NEXT: A busy month is lined up for our social business. The Fairplay Cafe is catering to several offices during the month while a tournament with our biggest headcount to date is lined up for the first week of May. Other Community Days and events are scheduled too, so watch this space!

Got a question or suggestion for Fairplay? Contact us below.