THERE will be better days.
Last summer, 96 kids from Tacloban City, all survivors of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), were given the chance to become children once more.
Using football as a means of trauma counseling for children who bore the brunt of the most devastating tropical typhoon in recent history, the RTR Football Cup was a weeklong clinic culminating in a tournament day last May 25 that was meant to expose kids to football, in the hope of developing a love and passion for the sport.
The project “focuses on creating an environment of hope, competitive sportsmanship, teamwork, and camaraderie as a means to heal their broken spirits, minds and hearts,” according to Ginggay Hontiveros of Mission Tacloban.
A Story of Hope
In an interview at her office in Makati City, mission director Hontiveros said she hopes the RTR Football Cup would continue as a sustainable football program for Leyte that would benefit the province’s underprivileged youth.
Trauma counseling is part of Mission Tacloban’s commitment to the health sector in Leyte after Typhoon Yolanda struck on November 8 last year. The football project is specifically for the children who also undergo counseling sessions, trauma therapy and workshops as a way to help them release all the negativity.
“If you talk to each of the 96 children, they all have their own sad stories about their experiences with Yolanda. They lost family members. Most of them lost their homes. Most of them live now in temporary shelters like bunkhouses, tents or shanties. That is the kind of situation these kids find themselves in daily. When they’re at home, they see all that devastation because the permanent shelters have not been rebuilt,” Hontiveros stressed.
According to statistics from the Department of Educations, 90 percent of all schools in the island province were either totally or partially destroyed.
“They either have no classrooms or they’re in tents donated by Unicef. Puro ganyan yung environment nila so if you’re eight years old, it’s hard to be a child again if puro ganyan ang nakikita mo. Day in and day out, that’s the kind of input you have in your mental and emotional well-being.”
“Introducing football to them removes them from that kind of situation and gives them a little bit more hope, that there is tomorrow for you kids, that you are not alone and that we’re here with you. It’s extending a hand to them,” she explained.
From idea to reality
The idea for the RTR Cup started with Gabby Malvar, who has collaborated with Hontiveros in various projects, one of which was the NatGeo travel and culture show ‘Islands Insider’ which she hosted.
“I love football and brought one along (in Leyte) and I thought maybe I could teach it to the kids. Then from a simple thing it became a grand thing,” he said.
Malvar played the role of the ‘Ideas Guy’ while Hontiveros, with her managerial skills, provided the organization and the mindset to transform concept into reality. It didn’t take long for Malvar’s partner to put things in motion.
‘“I contacted Tito Bernie and I said we were going to do this program for grassroots football in Leyte for children. I told him we needed a football organization with an advocacy similar to ours and at the same time they are willing to teach the kids since most of the children there have no exposure to football,” Hontiveros said.
‘Tito Bernie’ was Bernaldo Villegas, the national chairman of the Philippine Football Federation.
The call led to a referral to the football coaches at UP and Team Socceroo FC Barcelona - a team organized and headed by the Reyes brothers that does a lot of teach-ins for the sport in Metro Manila’s poor communities that also competes in the United Football League (UFL).
“Without a moment’s hesitation, ‘Yes!’ kaagad sila,” said Hontiveros. “Gabby and I talked about this before Holy Week and we got in touch with Tito Bernie during Holy Week. Afterwards I met Team Socceroo and the UP coaches. We put everything together in April and come May we went to Tacloban.”
The Beautiful Game
The clinic, held every morning from May 17-24 at the campus of the Eastern Visayas State University, had an auspicious beginning.
“At first, a lot of them were very reserved, quiet, unsure, hesitant since they didn’t know any of the coaches. Some of them have never seen a football and did not know how to handle it. In a way it was a kind of defense mechanism.”
Two volunteer coaches were assigned to each of the eight teams: 24 coaches from the Philippines, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Ghana and Nigeria worked together to teach the children. The coaches were provided by Team Socceroo, the UP Football Team, the UP Women’s Football Team and local coaches from Leyte.
Each child was provided a playing kit: an RTR Cup Jersey, a football, and a pair of rubber shoes.
RTR provided logistics and coverage for expenses such as airfare, accommodations, transportation, communication facilities, daily food and water, all other materials and training equipment for the duration of the project.
“Hindi naman namin papabayaan that these kids just show up to the football field for training - talagang hinahatid-sundo namin sila everyday. Our local coordinators would take a bus or a van and they would pick up the kids one by one. Training two to three hours in the morning, feed them lunch and bring them home," Hontiveros said.
The more time the kids spent with their coaches and new teammates on the field, things gradually began to change.
“You could see their behavior from day to day as the program progressed. They became more malambing, more demonstrative, more receptive to the teachings of the coaches. You could actually see those bonds starting to form within the kids and their coaches which was actually what we wanted to happen.”
By the final day, the teams were playing, well, like teams.
“There’s something about sports that helps lift your spirits and that was evident during the RTR Cup - both in the clinic days and the culminating tournament. You can see the parents and the community members in all eight municipalities and the competition was also very intense among the kids and the adults as well. If you are in that kind of arena, having the community all together, it sort of lifts the spirits and it gives them a chance to have joyous moments after all that devastation,” she said.
The first eight teams that participated in the first summer were Tacloban City, Palo, Babatngon, Tanauan, Tolosa, Sta. Fe, San Miguel and Alang-Alang.
Although open to boys and girls, Jenny Joy Barredo was the lone female representative who, “for playing like one of the boys” received a special recognition, the Fearless Award.
The parents of the kids also saw hope in the pitch despite the surrounding typhoon-damaged buildings, Hontiveros said.
“The parents of two of the kids said that after Yolanda they lost everything and they felt the situation was hopeless … but when their kids played, they said they saw a glimmer of hope. May pag-asa na daw ulit, they could see maybe there was a future for their children… steps towards for their kids being able to achieve something, that if their kids become very good at football that can lead to opportunities such as better education,” Hontiveros shared.
Also touched by the events were the coaches, none of whom had been to Tacloban before.
“If you talk to them the resounding theme in everything they say was it was really a life-changing experience for them, for a volunteer to see up close and personal the kind of devastation that happened. To see that for the first time and you bond with the children and you hear their stories and you talk to the community coaches, the parents so you get to hear all these stories of what happened. I think that really has an impact on these young people,” Hontiveros said.
The impact on the kids and the volunteer-coaches of the project was profound, looking at the conversation and the pictures on their social media pages. The word of mouth has since generated inquires from friends asking if they too could go and help.
"It’s something they’ll never forget. They wish more children could have joined the project. That’s something we look forward in doing in the future as long as we’re able to generate enough support for a sustainable program," Hontiveros said.
Building on what they have achieved over the summer, Mission Tacloban will have a bigger RTR Cup Phase 2 in September with clinics from July-August.
Hontiveros said they will apply the learning’s for a bigger scale since there were children who went to the field and asked, practically begged, to be part of it.
“Hindi naman naming maisama kasi we didn’t have a big budget. We want to reach more children. We want to spot kids with the potential in the sport and maybe continue to develop and watch over them.”
Work far from over
More than just being a one-time thing, Mission Tacloban is working on turning the RTR Cup into a truly sustainable grassroots football program for Leyte.
“It is a personal advocacy for myself and Gabby to help as much as we can at least in the areas where we feel we have probably better expertise. Gabby loves football and I love children and we’ve always wanted to be involved long-term in health and well-being of kids in Leyte, especially after what happened. So this is one of the programs - using football to help transform their lives or making it a bit better with sports,” explained Hontiveros.
They created a video, “The RTR Cup- A Story of Hope” (watch video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF64KK5HGwc&sns=fb) on Youtube, not to tell what they have done, but to let people know that the recovery of the province has only just begun. “
“It’s not A-OK there - far from it. There’s a lot more to do.”
Hopefully, football can help generate change - for those willing to help and the people facing the challenge of recovery.
Asked how sports can aid people hard-hit by Haiyan, Hontiveros answered,“That is something I think you can only get from sports - facing competition, coming together as a team, the camaraderie, the bonds, it teaches them the concept of teamwork and discipline.”
“The important things that help you go through daily life but you’re doing it in a more intense environment because its sports. So, all of that comes together and lifts the spirits of these people. It gives them a semblance of hope. That better days will come. It’s not going to be like this forever.”
For more information on how yuou can support Mission Tacloban’s Sustainable Football program:Please contact: Ginggay Hontiveros - Mission Director, Mission Tacloban/RTR Foundation, mobile (63) 917-5249957 or email : ginggay.hontiveros@yahoo.com
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