Back to the Roots

Play31 was officially founded in New York City in 2008. The organization, however, was conceived on one of the very last days of 2007 in Moyamba Town in southern Sierra Leone. Here, Jakob Lund met three boys at a guest house who asked him if he wanted to play football with them. When the four of them went on to play, Jakob realized the boys’ football was a complete wreck. “It was a plastic ball with a big hole in it, which made it seem more like a plastic bag,” Jakob says thinking back. When he presented them with a new ball, it was the boys’ happiness and enthusiasm that spurred the idea of what would soon become Play31. “All kids should at least have the right to a football, I thought,” says Jakob. “I thought about how my life would have been without that basic piece of equipment and I did not like the thought at all. So I decided there and then to start an organization that would provide children in Sierra Leone with footballs. After having discussed the idea with friends and colleagues in Sierra Leone, however, we soon realized that the Beautiful Game can be used for more than “just” bringing joy. It can also bring people together and foster reconciliation and a sense of, as they say in Sierra Leone “One World.” That’s what Play31 is today. But it all started with these three little boys and their ball.”

In November 2011, Jakob went back to Moyamba and searched for the boys at the same guest house. He found two of them there–the last one had gone off to school in a neighboring town. “It was actually a little emotional to see them again,” Jakob says about the meeting. “I don’t know them well at all and yet they ended up determining what I would go on to spend my time on. They were the inspiration for everything that Play31 has accomplished since then.” The two pictures are taken almost exactly four years apart. Since 2007, the boys have grown into young men. And the initial idea has grown into Play31, which has reached more than 50,000 people in Sierra Leone, bringing together people torn apart by war and educating children and adults; women and men about their rights and about peaceful conflict resolution.

Jan 8, 2012; / Blog / No Comments