We’re bringing football to children in isolated communities in rural Honduras.

In central Honduras, six out of ten households are subject to extreme poverty. Children and women are among the most vulnerable. Sadly, the average girl only stays in school until she’s 11 years old.

Since 2014, we’ve been working in the rural regions of Taulabé and Siguatepeque to encourage primary school children to stay in education. Our Football For All project, run in partnership with local organisation Honduras Croissance, gives 423 children the chance to play football each week through coaching sessions and tournaments.

Sessions are run by local coach Walter Hernandez and involve seventeen different primary schools in the area. The project engages with a third of all the young people supported by Honduras Croissance, making it their most popular programme.

And it’s not just having an impact on the children’s physical health and attendance at school – it’s helping to break down social barriers too. As in much of Honduras, women and girls in rural communities are often excluded from activities such as sport. Football For All is helping to empower young girls and slowly break down these barriers.

Football For All also encourages children from opposing schools and communities to play together. Our coach Walter says: “In Taulabé the two primary schools are traditionally rivals. With the practice of football and the tournaments, children interact and this rivalry is starting to fade away.”

Since 2014 Football Action has been providing football coaching to local school children to encourage them to remain in school and improve their quality of life.

Football Action has a full-time local coach who works with school children all across Taulabe and Siguatepeque, Central Honduras providing them with regular coaching sessions. The coach, Walter Hernandez is a local Honduran who spent 4 months volunteering and being trained by a professional coach working day in, day out with the school children before taking the coaching responsibilities over himself.

Since the project started it has been incredibly successful with numerous school requesting to join the project as well as requests being made by local government to further expand. The project began with roughly 200 children but has continually expanded and as of the end of 2019 currently involves over 500 children receiving regular coaching. The number of girls participating has also increased five-fold and the project continues to be seen as a positive example of sexual equality in a society where girls and women have traditionally played a secondary role.

The project runs 12 months a year, even during the holidays and does not just involve football. The students are also given opportunities to play other sports like ultimate frisbee as well as specific practical trade related courses during appropriate times of the year. The joy and screams of delight that can be heard when Walter arrives at the location with the equipment and balls gives clear evidence to the happiness the project brings to the children while the requests of other schools to join the project shows the value it has in promoting and encouraging education in a location where too many children are lost from the education system at a young age.

Help bring Football For All to more school children in Honduras. Donate today.