Help Fund Soccer Equipment For Kenyan Villages

Thank you to all the donators that contributed to the cause!

The teams have received the first rounds of the equipment shipments. Here are some photos from Rainbow FC.

Hello, my name is Colin Suydam and soccer is my passion. I was lucky enough to have the experience of visiting Kenya this summer on a family trip and one of the unexpected highlights was practicing and playing with a Kenyan village team, Rainbow FC of Kinondo Village. They went out of their way to come and practice on one of their scheduled off days with an American teenager they had never met before.

As soon as I arrived, a ball quickly brought us together and we began knocking and juggling it around. Right away it was clear the amount of joy we shared through our love of the game. As more of the team showed up we had enough to start a full 11v11 scrimmage that lasted almost a full 90 minutes.

This experience showed me that soccer really does hold the title of the world's "beautiful game." It didn't matter that we spoke different languages, came from different areas of the world, or even had different skin colors; the game brought us together through a shared passion we all had. I want to help them.

This team and others like it practice and play with sub-par equipment and conditions. The team I played with only had one ball, goals with missing nets, and an unmarked half-grass half-dirt and rock field. While we can’t change the field of play, this team and the players are too good to be practicing with such limited equipment. I'm raising funds to send equipment in the form of balls, bags, cones, training bibs, air pumps, etc to Rainbow FC and their sister club Funzi United to help them further improve and pursue their soccer dreams.

Rainbow FC, Funzi United, and I all thank you so much for your help.