#StandWithGirls in the Philippines!

Dear Football for Life Academy supporters! Greetings from the Philippines!

The last few months have been very busy. The main focus and our attention are being captured by the proof of concept within the partnership with the Department of Education Region VIIIwhich we signed in May 2017. Just to remind you briefly, we are delivering the F4LA (Football for Life Academy) curriculum in public school in Leyte. Three schools from Tanauan, Palo and San Joagin were selected for this pilot projects. More than 7 months into this project now, we have delivered a total of 924 sessions, directly engaging close to 865 children.

And great news: we have added one more school to the F4LA programme. Steadfast in our commitment to deliver experiential learning, through football, to schools and communities, we extended F4LA’s reach to the students and players of Sagkahan National High School (SNHS). Check this news out here.

More great news – we have launched the F4LA Classroom Sessions! Held first at the Tanauan School of Craftsmanship and Home Industries Campus last 12 January 2018, the Champions Classroom Sessions is designed to reinforce the values acquired on the field in a classroom setting. F4LA coaches take on the role of educators as they deliver experiential classroom learning sessions that underline and instill values to further support the players’ progress through soft-skills development and critical thinking. Through these sessions, they are encouraged to come up with problem-solving ideas to certain situations that they face in their communities.Learn more about this new platform here.

We have been also very active on the football pitch with different tournaments and community events! On November 18, 2017 we invited Students, Teachers and Parents to connect with F4LA during the 1st F4LA Interschool Cup at Leyte Sports Development Center in Tacloban City. 9 Teams from 5 F4L partner schools battled it out in the inaugural Inter-School Copa Leyte to showcase skills learnt over the first six months of the F4LA programme. This inter-school festival was organized to foster and strengthen the unity and friendship among the players as well provide a platform for their commitment. The F4L coach for the day, John Rex Acuin, has keenly reminded the participants to do their best, to play fair and to have fun. After his keynotes, the children have joyfully preceded to the warm-up exercises led by Jason Arroyo of Arsenal in the Community. Read more about this beautiful day which Department of Education helped to make possible here.

Oh, and, lest we forget (we won’t) – a shout-out to Arsenal in the Community! This partnership has been nothing short of amazing for all of us – the FundLife team, the children enrolled into the programme, and the extended communities. The recently concluded Arsenal in the Community Cup (our fun snaps this way), held last 10 February 2017, is just one of the many amazing collaborations with us that opens up amazing opportunities and experiences to the children we nurture. Your drive, energy, and passion is so contagious that it fuels us to go even further. Arsenal guys, if you are reading this – please know that you absolutely rock! Check out some photos on our F4LA FB page and FundLife FB page for yourself and see what keeps Arsenal youth coaches busy!

Another important process we have just accomplished in FundLife – we have revamped our accounting and financial systems. How did that happen? First, we got an amazing professional accounting guru volunteering 3 months of her time, courtesy of Accounting for International Development (UK) – Marie Chadburn, FCCA. Not only she brought our accounting methods to the 21^st century’s standards (yes, guys, we have an online accounting system and it absolutely rocks!), but she has also patiently brushed through our organization’s financial, HR, procurement policies and made a ton of useful suggestions. Furthermore, she spent a lot of time with our coaches training them on financial literacy. Marie, you are our Hero! Thank you for the time and for relentless fight you put to make us do good better – we want more

Finally… Just can’t keep the excitement – so here it goes! The news we’ve been keen to share with you in detail is… our participation in FIFA Football for Hope Festival! Hello Russia! Hello World Cup 2018! FundLife has been selected to officially represent Football4Good movement during the FIFA Football for Hope Festival on June 25-July 5 and we have no words to describe the honour we feel about this nomination!

So, stay tuned and next time we will present to you our deserving delegation!