During 2007, Sports Gift donated 22,650 items of sports equipment to youth programs serving impoverished children throughout the world.  A geographic breakdown of our donations includes: 43% in Africa, 32% in Central and South America, 12% in the United States, 7% in Mexico, and 6% in the South Pacific and Indonesia. Our donations comprised over 11,400 pounds of sports equipment for a wide range of sports broken down by sports category as follows: 67% soccer equipment, 12% baseball equipment, 9% coaching supplies, 3% tennis equipment and 9% other sports categories including basketball, volleyball, football and running.  We estimate that our gifts this year will benefit over 20,000 children throughout the world.  The following pages provide a summary of gifts made in 2007, which we hope will give you a more personal perspective on the impact Sports Gift is making in the lives of impoverished children all over the world.  The stories we receive are truly amazing, both in terms of the challenges and hardships these children must overcome and the immense joy and appreciation they experience upon receiving the gift of sports. 

United States

Approximately 17% of the youth in the United States are obese, and a disproportionate number of these children are Latino, Native American or African American. California has the second highest number of obese children in the nation, with 27% overweight. In addition, many children, especially those living in our urban cities, are being exposed to unhealthy choices including drugs and alcohol, gang activity, crime and other negative influences. Sports can serve as a life preserver to these children channeling their energy into a healthy outlet to provide a purpose and focus to their lives. Sports also teach valuable life skills in teamwork, goal setting, discipline and sportsmanship. Below is a summary of the impact Sports Gift made in 2007 within the United States.

Los Angeles, California
Items Donated: 459
Children Impacted: 100+
This gift of tennis racquets, tennis balls, clothing and tennis nets provided tennis to a summer program for underprivileged children in Carson, California. This youth tennis program is designed to give the children in this community a healthy alternative during the summer so they can stay out of trouble and learn the sport of tennis. The cost of tennis equipment prevents most of these children from participating in the program without the help of Sports Gift.

Los Angeles, California
Items Donated: 465
Children Impacted 500+
This gift of soccer equipment, baseball equipment, basketballs, footballs, running shoes was given to youth sports programs in inner-city Los Angeles. The youth programs supplement available school programs to give these children healthy alternatives after school.

Los Angeles, California
Items Donated: 214
Children Impacted 35+
This gift of tennis equipment including tennis racquets, tennis balls, tennis clothing and related equipment helped found a mentoring program at Santee High School in south Los Angeles. This program offers a 12 week program to students including healthy lifestyle education in nutrition, health and fitness reinforced using the tennis educational program.

New Orleans, Louisiana
Items Donated: 570
Children Impacted 500+
This gift of sports equipment included baseball equipment, volleyballs, footballs, bicycles, scooters, playground equipment was distributed to a community in New Orleans impacted by the Hurricane Katrina.

Orange County, California
Items Donated: 143
Children Impacted 100+
This gift of basketballs, soccer balls, volleyballs, footballs, playground balls, jump ropes and other sports equipment provided a holiday gift to homeless children at a homeless shelter in Orange County, California. These children are forced to deal with very challenging issues and must forego many of the childhood activities we take for granted. The families were invited to a holiday dinner where the children were able to select holiday gifts.

Cleveland, Ohio
Items Donated: 786
Children Impacted: 500+
This gift of soccer equipment including soccer balls, uniforms and other supplies was donated to local Boys & Girls Clubs in Ohio to support youth sports in that community.

Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Items Donated: 23
Children Impacted: 50+
This gift of soccer equipment was donated to a youth program in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania serving at risk children to provide education and health services including sports programs. Soccer equipment was also donated to an inner city school in Philadelphia to support sports programs for low income families in this community.

Mexico

Indepencia, Mexico
Items Donated: 164
Children Impacted: 100+
This gift included soccer and baseball equipment including soccer balls, uniforms, baseballs, mitts, bats, running shoes and other playground equipment such as footballs and Frisbees. A group traveled to this community to provide medical and dental care and other service to the families in this community and presented the sports equipment as a gift to the children.

San Quintin, Mexico
Items Donated: 588
Children Impacted: 500+
This gift included soccer, baseball and football equipment including balls, uniforms, cleats, bats, mitts and coaching supplies. A high school group brought the supplies as a gift to the children in this community in Mexico. Most of these children had never owned a soccer ball or jersey, so it was a very special gift, with the children literally jumping for joy when they received their gifts. Reports were that the children stayed in their new jerseys for the rest of the high school group’s trip.

Una Esparanza, Mexico
Items Donated: 407
Children Impacted: 150+
This gift included soccer equipment, basketballs, footballs and running shoes. The children in this community in Juarez, Mexico border have no sports equipment or fields to enjoy sports. Our gift of soccer balls, team uniforms, cleats shin guards and other equipment has allowed the community to form two teams to compete in local leagues.

Una Esparanza, Mexico
Items Donated: 123
Children Impacted: 25+
This gift included soccer equipment and playground equipment. The children in this community in Juarez, Mexico border have no sports equipment or fields to enjoy sports. This Sports Gift donation went to start a girl’s soccer program in the community. The girls in this community saw how much fun the boys were having and wanted to start a girl’s soccer team. Our gift of soccer balls, team uniforms, cleats, shin guards and other equipment has allowed the community to form a girl’s team to compete in local leagues. This gift also included jump ropes and other play ground equipment.

Northern Mexico
Items Donated: 370
Children Impacted: 100+
This gift of soccer balls, basketballs, footballs, playground equipment, soccer uniforms, t-shirts and other supplies was provided to an orphanage of 100 children in Northern Mexico.

Central and South America

Oresi, Costa Rica
Items Donated: 156
Children Impacted: 60+
This gift of soccer equipment including balls, cleats, uniforms, coaching supplies along with playground equipment such as Frisbees, hacky sacks and jump ropes was donated to a youth program in a very poor community south of San Jose, Costa Rica. Seeing the destitute living conditions and challenges these children face as well as the joy a single soccer ball or jersey brought to them was remarkable.

Dominican Republic
Items Donated: 686
Children Impacted: 500+
This gift was comprised of baseball equipment including bats, baseballs, uniforms, cleats, catcher’s equipment, basketballs and basketball uniforms. This Sports Gift donation impacted the lives of a large group of children in the Dominican. The report back was that the best part was the faces of the boys and coaches when we took the baseball equipment. We walked up on about 100 boys playing with less than 30 gloves, a few helmets, and bats. It was like Christmas to them even though it was not much. Thank you for all you are doing to make moments like these possible in kids lives!

Dominican Republic & Haiti
Items Donated: 175
Children Impacted: 200+
This gift of soccer balls, soccer uniforms, baseballs, mitts, bats, batting helmets and coaching supplies was given to a youth program in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Located in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The white sand beaches, impressive mountain ranges veined with spectacular rivers and waterfalls, and saltwater lakes teeming with exotic wildlife attract many wealthy tourists who stay at the many beachfront resorts. However, by extreme contrast, the vast majority of the national population lives in distressed conditions.

Lima, Peru
Items Donated: 6,000
Children Impacted: 10,000+
This gift of soccer equipment, baseball equipment, coaching supplies, running shoes and sports uniforms and warm-ups and other supplies was provided to the communities in Peru including Pisco and Cusco. These communities suffered an 8.0 earthquake in August, 2007 which destroyed much of the communities leaving many dead, injured or without homes. The sports equipment was given to children and to local youth programs to rebuild youth sports in this region after the earthquake.

Ecuador
Items Donated: 164
Children Impacted: 100+
This gift included soccer equipment including balls, uniforms and other sports equipment. This equipment was donated to a youth program in Ecuador to provide the gift of sports to this very poor community. A youth group traveled to the community as a summer trip and provided the equipment as a gift to the children of this community.

Africa

Cairo, Egypt
Items Donated: 169
Children Impacted: 100+
This gift of soccer equipment including uniforms and coaching supplies was an African refugee community in Cairo, Egypt. Many families have fled to Cairo from Sudan and other countries to escape regional wars and disaster. The families and children live in crowded cramped housing and many suffer malnourishment. This youth program provides school for these children and a sports program supported by our donations of sports equipment. The children had been playing soccer with a rock for a ball and one volunteer saw a child get hit in the face, so our soccer supplies made a meaningful impact for these children.

Malawi, West Africa
Items Donated: 130
Children Impacted: 100+
This gift of soccer items including soccer balls and uniform supplies was donated as a gift to a youth program in Malawi. A high school group traveled to the community for a week and brought the sports equipment as a gift to the children of this community. The high school students organized teams and games with the children in the community many of whom had never owned sports equipment.

Kenya, Sudan and Uganda
Items Donated: 4,643
Children Impacted: 4,000+
This gift of soccer equipment, running shoes, basketballs, footballs, cleats, shin guards, coaching supplies, soccer balls, and other sports equipment is allowing the children in these communities to form teams and develop local youth sports programs. The children living in each of these countries experience extreme poverty, disease, violence by regional wars and thousands are orphaned with nowhere to turn. The program in Kenya serves orphans in Kibera, Kenya. The program in Uganda and Sudan serves children referred to as the Night Commuter Children of Uganda and Sudan. Each day, they must walk several miles from their villages to sleep in the cities protected from the terrorist armies seeking to exterminate their community. These children not only have to confront stark poverty, but must also face daily violence from brutal rebels seeking to wipe out their families and communities. While charitable organizations are working to build orphanages and secure areas for these children to provide a semblance of safety, their resources are extremely limited given the magnitude of the need. Through this Sports Gift donation, local youth leaders have been able to organize soccer teams and informal leagues to give the children the opportunity to enjoy soccer and other sports. Many of the children own no shoes, and the report we got back was that the children were wearing the soccer cleats we donated for everyday use to fetch water from the well and do other chores. We began shipping running shoes to this community as well to support a running program and to provide shoes for these children to use on a regular basis.

Kibera, Kenya
Items Donated: 100
Children Impacted: 75+
This gift included soccer equipment including cleats, uniforms, goalies supplies and soccer goal. Kibera are slums located about 15 kilometers from the center of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. The poverty is extreme with the majority of families living on less than $1 a day. A typical family of four lives in a 10 square foot house with no electricity or running water. Unsanitary living conditions pose a serious health risk and the extreme poverty creates a general despair in the community. The most vulnerable children in the Kibera slums are girls as gender bias is common. They are often forced to drop out of school to work to help sustain their family. HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases are common in this community. The girls lack basic soccer supplies with many playing barefoot on rocky soil. Sports Gift donation was provided to a girl’s youth program providing free education and soccer to girls in this community.

Monrovia, Liberia
Items Donated: 58
Children Impacted: 260+
This gift of soccer balls, volleyballs and coaching supplies was donated to a boarding school in Monrovia, Liberia. The school provides for the needs of 260 orphans. The children have known little other than the atrocities of war which lasted over 14 years devastating the fabric of life in this community.

Monrovia, Liberia
Items Donated: 234
Children Impacted: 400+
This gift of soccer equipment including uniforms supported a mentorship program for children in this community including soccer leagues. The mentorship program teaches children important values and life skills including self-esteem, teamwork and discipline. Liberia is a country where over 50% of the population is under the age of 18. A majority of the children are emotionally scarred from the violence and brutalities of war. Many of the children as young as six years old were forced to serve in rebel armies. An estimated 230,000 children have been orphaned by the war.

Sierra Leone, West Africa
Items Donated: 115
Children Impacted: 200+
This gift of soccer equipment including balls, uniforms and cleats was provided to the community in Sierra Leone, Africa. Recovering from ten years of civil war, the children of Sierra Leone were the hardest hit by this internal conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered, leaving an estimated 10,000 children orphaned and unaccompanied in the late 1990s. Today, the infant mortality rate (the percentage of children that die before they reach five years of age) of Sierra Leone is the highest in the world (2006 UNICEF report). This statistic reflects the shortage of important infrastructure like hospitals, educational institutions, agricultural development, and economic development that is needed for the stability and improvement of conditions for children. Sports Gift is working with an organization on the ground in Sierra Leone to provide sports programs as a part of their humanitarian relief to this community. We hope to increase our donations to the region significantly in 2008.

Togo, West Africa
Items Donated: 82
Children Impacted: 50+
This gift included soccer equipment such as soccer balls, uniforms and goalie supplies. A Peace Corp volunteer is establishing a girl’s education and empowerment program in this community and is using the sports equipment donated by Sports Gift to include sports as part of this program.

Raki and Gulu, Uganda
Items Donated: 2,112
Children Impacted: 1,000+
This gift of soccer, basketball, volleyball and running equipment including balls, uniforms, cleats, shin guards and running shoes was made to a youth program in Uganda benefiting children who have been left parentless due to the AIDs epidemic in that country, or orphaned by the conflicts in Northern Uganda. The program spreads the message of AIDs awareness as well as providing emotional support to these children who have been traumatized by war and AIDs in their community. This Sports Gift donation of soccer balls, uniforms, cleats, shin guards and coaching supplies supported soccer clinics, leagues and tournaments for these children.

Gulu, Uganda
Items Donated: 409
Children Impacted: 900+
This gift of soccer equipment including balls, uniforms and coaching supplies supported a youth program for orphaned children in Uganda. Orphanages are viewed negatively in much of Africa, so this program operates “boarding schools” which offer residential care and education to these children who have lost parents to war or disease. The children have a place to live, food, education and sports programs supported by Sports Gift donations. There are over two million orphans in Uganda, a country slightly smaller than the state of Oregon.

Lira, Uganda
Items Donated: 159
Children Impacted: 50+
This gift of soccer balls, soccer uniforms and coaching supplies was donated to children living in this Northern Uganda community that has faced a violent civil war. The town is crowded with refugees fleeing the war, and the children have been deeply scarred by the war. This donation allowed children to form a local team to participate in competitions.

Kampala, Uganda
Items Donated: 622
Children Impacted: 300+
This gift of soccer equipment including balls, uniforms, coaching supplies, cleats, trophies and other supplies was provided to a youth program serving children in the community in Kampala, Uganda. This donation supported a youth program establishing soccer leagues in Africa, where they train local adults in how to organize and train soccer teams so they can maintain the leagues in the future. This program serves children refugees from Rwanda, Congo, Burundi and Northern Uganda who have fled to Kampala to escape war and regional conflict.

Zimbabwe
Items Donated: 1,000
Children Impacted: 500+
This gift of soccer equipment was provided to youth programs in Zimbabwe serving impoverished children. The organization is establishing medical clinics and other humanitarian programs for this community and included sports programs supported by Sports Gift donations.

South Pacific and Indonesia

Sumba, Indonesia
Items Donated: 454
Children Impacted: 1000+
This gift included equipment for soccer, volleyball, and general playground equipment including balls, nets, cones, uniforms, Frisbees, footballs, swim snorkel and masks and wet suits. Sports Gift has been supporting this community for over three years and our continuing donations in 2007 provided sports equipment to equip additional schools for the children in this very poor community. Sumba is one of the poorest islands in Indonesia. The people of Sumba live in poverty with no running water or electricity and none of the conveniences we experience in the United States. A lack of clean water contributes to serious health risks and disease on the island. Sumba has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, where 40% of the children die before the age of eight. 65% of the children are malnourished and half of the children drop out of school by the fourth grade. Malaria is a major disease on the island and in the most severe cases can leave the victim with permanent brain damage. There are a number of schools on the island, but they are in a state of disrepair with leaking roofs and holes in the floors.

Sumatra, Indonesia
Items Donated: 290
Children Impacted: 100+
This gift of soccer equipment was provided to youth programs serving children in Indonesia. The beauty of the Banyak Islands in Indonesia is matched only by their remoteness. Located off the western coast of Sumatra, the Banyaks were the epicenter for the March 28, 2005 earthquake that devastated the island of Nias. These areas were devastated by the tsunami on December 24th, 2004, and then by the March 2005 earthquake. The problems now being experienced in the Banyaks are the result of the tilting of the islands. Some portions of the islands have risen up out of the water while other portions have sunk. Some villages along the coastline are now under water. Trees along the coast are dying either because their roots no longer reach the water table or because they are inundated with saltwater. Fishing docks and piers in some areas are now standing on dry ground. Where the islands have been pushed up, wells are now dry. Much of the work to be done includes rebuilding basic infrastructure, but with the assistance of Sports Gift donations, we are seeking to provide sports to the children in this community.

Tonga, South Pacific
Items Donated: 603
Children Impacted: 500+
This gift of soccer balls, soccer uniforms, basketballs, basketball uniforms, footballs, baseball equipment including balls, mitts, bats, catcher’s gear, batting helmets was donated to youth programs on this island in the South Pacific. Poverty in this region is experienced differently than other areas, a primary challenge for children in this region is a lack of opportunity. Children have a high rate of obesity due to a lack of youth sports programs and supplies. This donation supported educational and youth sports programs being established by Peace Corps volunteers living in the community.