Our footballclub for streetchildren Kharkiv

With the signing of an agreement between Bert van Oostveen, former director of the Royal Netherlands Football Association KNVB, Alexander Dreval, director of Breath Care for Kids Ukraine and Nico de Borst, chairman of Breath Care for Kids, the kick off took place to construct an artificial grass football field and in ultimately a football club for streetchildren at the terrain of the boarding school in Kharkiv. The other parties are the authorities of Kharkiv Oblast, KharkivUniversityand the Wilde Ganzen (Wild Geese) Charity.

The football field is located on the premises of the boarding school that offers shelter to street children from the whole region. In 2011 330 children have been taken in, in 2012 222 children and up until June 2013 83 children have found a home here after being taken off the streets byb the authorities like the police.

The children receive temporary shelter in the boarding school, after they have been either placed in care or taken off the street. Before being placed in the boarding school they have been medically examined in a hospital. Once they are living in the boarding school the management and social workers try to find them a home with either relatives of a foster fmily. But there will alays be children who have no place to go and for them we offer shelter in one of our Small Group Homes. Here up to 10 children can live and grow up in a family type environment.

In conjunction with the KNVB's vision we offer our footballing activities to children with a history of living on the streets and other vulnerable children at our S(treet) C(hildren) F(ootball) C(lub) Breath Kharkiv Ukraine. We are also busy to found an all girls team that can actively take part in matches and tournaments. The club has already been registered by the Ukrainian Football Association.

Starting in the Spring of 2017 we are planning on making a start with 50 children. The pitch has already been built and nothing stands in our way to begin playing. The various trainers will have to grow into coaches of the children. Intensive involvement with the children will make for good diagnoses of the problems of each child. A correct diagnose means that we will be able to help the children in the most effective manner.

To let the club be run as effectively as possible we are working on expanding the facilities. For the needed amount of €49.000 we are currently still searching for sponsors.