A barbed wire gateway leading to the football pitches of the Eastleigh Community Centre. Over the past month, we have been working with the Eastleigh Community Centre to reach out to young Somali men living within Eastleigh. Among the common interests of Somali youth, football ranks very high. As a way of engaging and mobilizing Somali teens and young adults, we are working on a peace football tournament. We see the tournament as a way of building local participation, enhancing cohesion between conflicting groups and as way of engaging youth in discussions that will identify their priority needs for development. Already we have twenty teams interested in participating in the event. We are meeting with the leaders of these teams today to discuss the way forward as we involve representatives from each group as part of the planning and leadership of the event. This planning portion of the event is as important as the tournament itself, as it gives us a wonderful opportunity to work alongside young emerging leaders within the community.
Please keep this initiative in your prayers. There are many obstacles yet to overcome. We pray especially for our friend Reuben who has been an incredible help in reaching out to the young men in the community.
Also in pray: Please remember Erica and our colleague, A., as they travel each day this week, and next, to a crisis management conference in Karen.
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