This has been an incredible week for the villagers and children in Libore! Mike Mitchell and Dave Stahl from Project Play are there for 8 days, visiting every village in Libore and showing the coaches, teachers and students how to establish soccer (football!) clubs, leagues and competitive play. They are spending time teaching  training and practice drills to the coaches from every village and then playing with the children everywhere they go.  It has been a huge success thanks to Hamani Djibo and his fellow members of LIBO who spent days and hours preparing for this visit, organizing every village and explaining what would happen.
Project Play has donated 1200 balls to Niger this time. Some are being distributed to the villages in Libore, and then the commune of Libore will have the responsibility to share the knowledge and skills they have learned with other communes in the country.  The mentored becomes the mentor!  P4K’s connection to Project Play began three years ago when I contacted Mike Mitchell in Brazil, and said I heard he had soccer balls he wanted to bring to Niger! At the time, he was contemplating a return to Niger – he had been there as a Peace Corps volunteer 17 years earlier and had always wanted to return with soccer balls.  Soccer was an integral part of his life and when he was in the Peace Corps he was instrumental in helping the soccer team in Niger!  Mike did return not long after we spoke, and donated the first hundred balls in Niger to Libore. Now three years later, he and his lifelong friend and soccer pro Dave Stahl, are spending quality time in Libore training, coaching and laying the foundation for a true club, village and regional  network of soccer. It is beyond exciting to see the faces of the children and the anticipation of the people. Bravo Project Play!