Delivering the gift of sport, for the cost of a smile
Whitby father-daughter duo sending free soccer uniforms to kids in developing world
“The smiles are as wide as can be. That’s all the thanks we need.” SHAWN WILLIAMSON AFRISOCCER CO-FOUNDER
Four continents, 16 countries and 2,804 soccer uniforms equal a lot of smiling faces.
Alyssa Williamson, 11, and her father, Shawn, have spent the past three years collecting sets of used soccer uniforms to send to kids across the developing world.
“I think it’s good that people are coming together and doing all of this hard work so people who might not have the stuff we might take for granted can have it,” Alyssa says.
The Whitby father-daughter duo are the founders of Afrisoccer, — a group that came about after Shawn met someone who was doing development work in Africa.
“There are all these uniforms out here and all these kids over there who need them,” Shawn says. “Our mission is to share the gift of sport.”
They started small, sending nine sets of uniforms to kids in northern Uganda and South Sudan in the fall of 2012. In 2013, 60 sets of uniforms were shipped abroad. That number swelled to 146 in 2014. To date, 250 sets have made their way to soccerloving countries such as Ethiopia, Liberia, Cambodia, Haiti and El Salvador.
“In a lot of these places, there’s not a lot of joy going around,” Shawn says. “To these kids, this is often the first soccer uniform they’ve ever had.”
A whole shipment of shorts also went to a soccer program in Toronto’s Regent Park this year. “We were able to have them operate their program and cut their costs,” Shawn, who runs a management consultancy company, says. “There are kids in need right here in the GTA.”
This year, Alyssa and Shawn hope to send out 200 sets of uniforms (they look for at least eight uniforms per set). The Williamsons, who have their hands full in Durham Region, are eagerly looking for people to start Afrisoccer chapters elsewhere in the province.
The Williamsons currently work with three soccer clubs in Durham, which together run hundreds of kids’ teams. At the end of the soccer season, the clubs and teams donate old and surplus sets of uniforms. The Williamsons then find travelling partners — NGOs, tourists, business people — visiting the developing world. Those travelling partners stuff their luggage or cargo containers with uniform sets and hand them out to kids free of charge. Afrisoccer is also beginning to work with overseas schools.
“We have one group that sends used bicycles over to Malawi,” Shawn says. “I’ve seen them when they fill up a container. You don’t think that they could get a single other thing in there, but they wedge them into all the nooks and crannies!”
The only thing Shawn and Alyssa ask from their travel partners are stories and photos of kids playing in their new outfits.
“The smiles are as wide and can be,” Shawn says. “That’s all the thanks we need.”
With soccer season coming to close, now is the time to reach out, Shawn says. Instead of sticking your kids’ soccer uniform in the back of their closet, why not get their teammates together to donate a set? Shawn says it can help kids “hooked on giving back.”
It can be thrilling for kids, he adds, to see photos of other children donning their uniforms across the globe.
Although Alyssa stopped playing soccer a few years ago, she eagerly helps her father sort and catalogue shipments.
“It makes me feel really happy because I know that I’ve done something really good,” Alyssa says.