AU soccer donations help save a bit of the world

Aurora University sees the education of men and women of equal importance. Unfortunately, not all people do. In the Yao culture of Mozambique in Africa, girls are sometimes pressured to cease their education and get married as young as 14 because their parents can no longer care for them in their crushing poverty. That's why Aurora University recently donated soccer equipment to a group called Malo Ga Kujiliana in the Nomba village in Mozambique.

You may be asking what soccer has to do with education. Pete Watkins, Aurora University's soccer coach, is friends with the Holton Family, who are missionaries in Mozambique. They run a farm called Malo Go Kujilana (MGK), which means "place of coming together." Among its many programs, it is a place where young girls can find support to continue their education. The girls bake bread to raise money and play soccer as recreation. The trouble was, they lacked equipment. So AU recently sent a donation of balls, jerseys and shorts to them through another of Coach Watkins' friends, Dave Richert of Aurora, an AU alumnus.

"You look at these people who are the most disadvantaged of the disadvantaged," said Watkins, "and you want to create more opportunities for these girls by giving them something positive. Just finding a soccer ball is near impossible in places like this. Sending this donation was a no-brainer. (MGK's work) helps to lower the teen pregnancy rate and allow these girls to grow and mature." Both Watkins and Richert talked about making the world a little bit better place.

Richert reminded me of the old story of the boy walking down a beach, throwing the starfish back into the ocean that had washed in with the tide. A man walks up and says, "You can't save all the starfish." The boy throws another starfish back and answers, "No, but I just saved that one." Maybe we can't save the world, but sometimes we can make a huge difference in a life or two.

Coach Watkins plans to send more supplies to the girls at MGK. If people from the community have socks, shin guards or cleats in sizes that teenage or pre-teen girls could use, contact Watkins at pwatkins@aurora.edu to drop them at the university to be included in the next shipment of supplies.

Another way AU can help you to enrich the lives of others is their blood drive today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Dunham Hall library. The AU Student Nurse Association will be working with Heartland Blood Center to ensure the local blood supply is adequate. Donors will receive a pair of flannel lounge pants.

So find a way this week to throw just a couple starfish back into the safety of the ocean. No one of us can solve all the problems that face humanity, but if each of us does even a little bit, it can make all the difference in the world to the people we are able to reach with our humble acts of kindness.

deenasherman@att.net