Everyone speaks the language of football, Street Child United CEO says at 2021 WISE Summit

The 2021 WISE Summit has shone a light on next year’s Street Child World Cup, which will take place in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ - with young leaders telling the world of education how the initiative changed their lives.

John Wroe, Co-Founder and CEO, Street Child United, spoke at the latest edition of the biennial summit organized by Qatar Foundation’s global education initiative WISE, in a session titled Facilitating Access to Education for Street-Connected Young People, and said: “Our job is the amplify the voices of these young people.”

Explaining how Street Child United was established, Wroe said: “I volunteered at a street child organization in South Africa in 2008 with my family. We met a boy who had been on the streets since the age of four, and we played football. He said, ‘When people see me on the streets, they say I am a street child. But when they see me playing football, they say I am a person. I am a person like you’.”

“Everyone speaks football, and Street Child United is about getting the world to see street children differently.”

Wroe was joined by two young leaders – Sadock John from Tanzania, and Jasmin Akter, a Rohingya refugee – who discussed some of the challenges they have had to overcome and the changes they still want to see made.

John said: “The organization found me on the streets, so they took me into their football program and in 2010, they took me to the very first Street Child World Cup, which was in South Africa.

“Before going to South Africa, people called me ‘street child’, and many bad names. But when I came back, I was a hero. I was a role model, and people wanted to connect their kids with me, so I could talk to them about my experience and how I got off the streets. And that’s how the Street Child World Cup changed my life.”

After the tournament, John went on to coach football to other children. And while football is a major component of the tournament, he emphasized how an important aspect of the initiative is education and giving knowledge to young people.

“I didn’t think there were street children in other countries,” he said. “But in 2010, I saw street children from South Africa, from Brazil, and many other places. I realized that this is a big issue, a big agenda, which everyone should concentrate on, and put their energy into to make a positive change.

“The Street Child World Cup gives opportunities to other people. I’m very proud to go out and talk to people about the issues young people are facing. At the end of the day, our main goal is to make sure that no child should live or spend time on the streets.”