Endeavors

Balls Without Borders formed in response to Iraq’s national victory in the 2007 Asian Cup.  As demonstrated, soccer has the capacity to bring people together. For a full 24 hours that day, the only gunshots being fired were in celbration of thier victory. Since 2007 we have sent over 4,600 balls to kids in need at home and around the world. If it takes 22 kids to play a game of soccer, that means we have potentially provided a beneficial impact on the lives of more than 101,200 youth worldwide, so far. We reach kids that love the “Beautiful game” but have the disadvantages of being born into poverty, landlessness, conflict, and near hopelessness. Like the Doctors Without Borders who inspired our formation,  ”We find out where conditions are the worst–the places where others aren’t going–and that’s where we want to be.”

Where We Operate

BWB’s decision to operate in any country or crisis is based solely on an independent assessment of people’s needs. BWB’s field volunteers work in the most remote or dangerous parts of the world. BWB depends on heroic volunteers who distribute the balls to kids in these dangerous and/or remote locations around the world. It is with them that our ability to affect these kids lives remains.

Completed Shipments to: 

  • 6 of Nelson Mandela’s Ma Afrika Tikkun Orphanages in South Africa
  • Mathare Slums, Kenya, 2nd largest Slum in the World
  • Darfur, Southern Sudan
  • Zemio Refugee Camp – Central African Republic
  • Fiji
  • Mali
  • Malawi
  • Fukushima, Japan
  • Burka Faso
  • Compton, CA
  • Syria
  • Jordan
  • Madagascar
  • Mexico
  • Costa Rica
  • Haiti
  • UN Millenium Village in Dertu, Kenya
  • Halabja, Iraq
  • Fallujah, Iraq
  • Al Anbar Provence, Iraq
  • Kurdish Awazi Refugee Camp, Iraq-Jordan border
  • Sheberghan, Afghanistan
  • To children being raised in a Women’s Prison in Herat, Afghanistan
  • Boy’s Orphanage in Mazar-e-Sfarif, Afghanistan
  • Buhj, India
  • Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic
  • Daos Children’s Center in Mombassa, Kenya
  • Thailand
  • Apache Reservation
  • Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
  • Sealaska Heritage, Alaskan Natives

PENDING:

  • Dakar, Senegal
  • Cartagena, Columbia
  • Southern Sudan
Traveling anytime soon? Write to info@ballswithoutborders.com for information on becoming a Field Volunteer
Field Volunteer Requirements
  • Must be already traveling to a remote and or dangerous place
  • Have an address in that country where you can recieve our package
  • Must be willing to inflate and hand out play balls to kids who are in need of a healthy childhood
  • Take photos to document the endeavor to raise awareness of their plight

USAID Director of Disaster Relief in the East Africa region, Nick Cox, volunteered to distribute these balls without borders to kids growing up in the Mathare Slums, the 2nd largest Slum in all of Africa. There, Metro F.C. is working to forge friendships against inter-ethnic post-election strife. Mathare Slums are located on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Photo taken during World Cup Fever 2010

Balls Without Borders is a registered 501(c)(3) Public Charity Non-Profit Organization helping children in need find a new perspective through sport. Photos and current activity reports will be updated periodically so please check back.