CCF Soccer Team Gets Shoes from Finland

I know you are probably scratching your head right now, “CCF has a soccer team?”

Just as in other parts of the world, “football” is the most popular sport in Namibia. Employees of CCF’s model farm have fielded a team that plays with teams representing neighboring farms. It’s a casual league. No uniforms or electronic scoreboards, but the games provide fun and unity and are a high point of the workers’ day.

Imagine the surprise and delight of our team when they received soccer shoes, or “football boots,” from a most unlikely source: Finnish first-graders. A school on the west coast of Finland named Koivuhaan Koulu received the football boots that were donated by a local football team. Rather than distribute them locally, the students and their teacher, Joonas Väisänen, decided to send them to Namibia with a classmate who planned to visit with her family. Their goal was to help support rural people in Namibia to develop a shared love for the game they enjoyed playing so much themselves.

As you can see from the photo, our CCF soccer players are very pleased with their new gear, and the school kids in Finland are thrilled to learn the boots’ new owners are already putting them to good use.