MANILA, Philippines—The police found him sprawled on the street, shoeless, homeless, and high on “solvent.” He had no idea how old he was and he couldn’t remember his mother’s name.
Seven years later, Jeffrey Solis, now 17, and a resident of Tuloy sa Don Bosco, a street children’s village in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, is preparing to go to Melbourne, Australia, as one of 12 players of the first Philippine team competing in the Homeless World Cup.
The HWC is an international football tournament that requires teams to be composed of homeless people 17 years old and above.
But first Jeffrey needed a passport.
“Because he was under 18, we had to find his parents,” Fr. Beng Molavin, Philippine team adviser and Tuloy counselor, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “The mother of another boy at Tuloy said she had seen Jeffrey’s mother nangangalakal (scavenging) on the streets, and volunteered to put out word that we were looking for her.”
A social worker from the Department of Social Welfare and Development tapped her own network to look for a certain “Lourdes.”
They never found her. Tuloy and the DSWD managed to get Jeffrey a passport, but not without filing a substantial amount of paperwork.
In August, Jeffrey’s mother turned up. Her name was actually Edna.
“The boy had given us a different name. That’s why we couldn’t find her. But the two looked so much alike. It was undeniable—he was her son,” Molavin said.
After seven years, mother and son were reunited in Tuloy. She asked him with tears in her eyes: “Kamusta ka na (How are you)?”
“OK naman,” he replied without bitterness or anger, and tried to fill in the awkward silence by telling her about his vocational technology course in refrigeration and air-conditioning and how he spent his weekends—playing soccer four to six hours a day to prepare for the HWC in December.
Changing lives
The HWC, according to its website (www.homelessworldcup.org), is “an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever.”
The first tournament, which brought together 17 national teams, took place in Graz, Austria, in 2003. At the 5th HWC in Copenhagen last year, 48 nations representing 500 players competed. The top finishers were from Scotland, Poland and Liberia.
This year, the event takes place in Melbourne on Dec. 1-7 with over 50 countries expected to attend.
The Philippines is competing for the first time in the mixed-team category with eight official players and four reserve, or a total of 12 players.
Half the number will come from Tuloy and the other half from Nayon ng Kabataan, a shelter run by the DSWD in Mandaluyong.
Said William Shaw, executive director of Urban Opportunities for Change Foundation Inc., the organizer of HWC here: “The event is more than just football. It hopes to focus on the global issue of poverty and homelessness. Hopefully, it will draw attention to the [situation] and bring about change.”
The foundation, which also publishes Jeepney magazine, is a member of the International Network of Street Papers, which started the HWC.
Making a difference
A research conducted six months after the 2006 HWC in Cape Town, South Africa, showed that 73 percent of the players had significantly improved their lives through employment, housing, education and drug or alcohol treatment programs.
Some of the players went on to become semi-professional or professional footballers or coaches.
HWC Philippines head of project Ed Formoso, who was formerly with the Philippine Football Federation media and marketing department, hopes the same opportunities await the Philippine team.
Tuloy founder Fr. Rocky Evangelista and Nayon head Eva Lawas, together with head coach Marlon Maro and assistant coach Jess Landagan, held tryouts and chose the official players: Jay-R de Jesus, 18, Kevin Prix Logioy, 17, Jeffrey Solis, 17, Marlon Lagundino, 17 (all from Tuloy), and Nińa Versoza, 18, Rondolf Loggakit, 18, Russel Jacinto, 18, and Ricky Elequio, 20 (all from Nayon).
The reserve players are Nomer Olivares, 17, and Christian Yves Caroro, 16, from Tuloy and Maricel Quitoy, 17, and Arnold Villanueva, 18, from Nayon.
“The players—most of them 17 or 18—are probably the youngest to compete in the tournament. What they lack in experience and skills, they more than make up for with their determination. They’re all heart,” Formoso said.
Children’s stories
Most of the kids were abandoned or left in an orphanage because their parents were unable to care for them. Others were runaways who ended up on the streets sniffing solvent or Rugby and sleeping on meat tables in the public market.
Others, though underage, were forced to work as helpers or garment workers.
Jay-R and his five siblings were abandoned by their mother in Dasmarińas, Cavite. Jay-R combed through garbage, in search of metal and plastic to sell for food. Sometimes the neighbors would feed them.
With no sign of either parent coming back, Jay-R was brought to Tuloy when he was 12; his siblings were taken to another center. He is now the Philippine team captain and is enrolled in a vocational technical course in automotive repair at Tuloy.
Nina was rescued by National Bureau of Investigation agents from a garment factory in Quezon City. She was only 16, a runaway from Bohol, when she was brought to Nayon.
Now she goes to high school and plays soccer. She dreams of one day becoming a “secret agent” because, she told the Inquirer, “I want to rescue the other kids who have been abused or beaten.”
When Ricky was seven, his uncle sent him to work as a helper in Marikina and then kept the boy’s salary for himself.
When the employers decided to informally adopt Ricky, the uncle forced his way into the house, grabbed the boy and started to beat him.
The police came and took Ricky to Nayon, where he was able to live a normal life and even finished high school. He is now studying at the Rizal Technological University (RTU), hoping to complete an electrical engineering course as a soccer varsity player.
‘We’ve got a team!’
The fast-paced street football matches take place in custom-built pitches approximately 60 meters by 80 meters, or about the size of a tennis court. Each team has eight players on the bench, four of whom are on the pitch at any one time.
Each half lasts for seven minutes and players can be shown a blue card for foul play, meaning they are suspended from the game for two minutes. The standard red card penalty for serious fouls also applies.
During a weekend practice at the Nayon’s covered basketball court, the young players sprinted, feinted, shielded and turned the ball with the same intensity and seriousness of footballers preparing for a match.
Last Sunday, at the La Salle Green Hills covered courts, the kids dribbled the ball and held their own against seasoned players of the Navy Football Club, Darren Hartmann, English-Filipino player for the Philippine national team, and two visiting soccer players from Cameroon.
“We’ve got a team!” said a proud Maro, Fifa “A” license coach and head coach for La Salle Green Hills and its College of St. Benilde. “They’re not afraid to work hard. They fall, they’re hurting, but they don’t ask for a time out. They want to keep on playing.”
Stuff of winners
Landagan, pro bono football coach at Nayon and head coach of RTU in Mandaluyong, observed: “They’re street children. They’re tough. They have the stuff that makes winners.”
It was in 2003 that Landagan started coaching kids in Nayon. “I would throw a ball and everyone would come out of the cottages and start playing soccer. One day, visitors from Unicef Norwich came to the shelter and saw the kids play soccer wearing flip-flops or barefooted. They donated 60 pairs of shoes in 2005. I keep them in a locked cupboard. I preserve the shoes by taking them out to practices before a real tournament,” he said.
But no worries about what the Philippine team will wear at the tournament in Melbourne.
Accel, the official outfitter, delivered spanking new jerseys, shoes and socks. Another kind soul donated balls for the intensive practice sessions.
The other sponsors are Solar Sports TV, Amici pizza and pasta, Mariposa Travel Agency, SR Metals, Ybarra olive oil, GNC sports nutrition, Gatorade, 2Go, Kids International Ministries, NU 107, Ipanema and Riders.
(Those who wish to support the HWC Philippine team in its training and trip to Melbourne may log on to www.thejeepney.com. For details on the team, log on to www.pinoysoccer.com, www.pffmanila.org.)
