Goan group offers hope to poor in Manila with sports-based life-skills programmes

Panaji: After Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in Africa, the Karuna Football Foundation has now completed a five-day exploratory mission to Manila, Philippines, as part of the Afro Asia Compassion Sports initiative, aimed at expanding the foundation’s outreach to vulnerable and marginalised communities across Asia and Africa.

The foundation uses sport to touch and improve lives through initiatives aimed at empowering underprivileged youngsters through football and sports-based life-skills programmes.


“One of the key highlights of the visit was the team’s interaction with the communities of Happyland, Tondo, one of Manila’s most underserved neighbourhoods,” said Kennedy D’Silva, director, Karuna Football Foundation. “The delegation met with NGOs and grassroots organisations working with children and youth who have little or nothing healthy to eat. Discussions centred on how football and sports-based life-skills programmes could bring dignity, hope, and long-term development to these young lives.”

Manila has the highest homeless population in the world, and about 35% of Manila’s population live in slums. Happyland, Tondo is the poorest slum in the Philippines capital, where people live on a dumpsite surrounded by big piles of garbage.

Besides Kennedy, the delegation to Manila comprised of Milton Fernandes, a former director of sports at Goa University, and Ishan Gaikwad.

The Manila visit was the second big foreign initiative after the visit to Africa in 2023.

“Football and sports is an important tool to change lives. During this visit, the team engaged with several community partners and leaders to explore collaborative opportunities that align with Karuna Football Foundation’s commitment to compassion through sport,” said Kennedy.

The Goan group saw for themselves that in severe poverty belts such as Tondo, thousands of families rely on ‘pagpag’, a Filipino term meaning “to shake off the dirt,” where discarded food is still fit for hungry mouths in the slums.

“Various humanitarian organisations estimate that tens of thousands of people in Manila’s poorest districts depend on pagpag in some form, reflecting the extreme socio-economic vulnerability faced by these communities. It is among these very children and families that the foundation hopes to bring a message of hope and transformation through sports,” said Kennedy.

The foundation, through Milton, presented its vision of the Compassion Football initiative, which integrates football training, coaching development and life-skills education to change lives. This model was previously implemented at Bidibidi refugee settlement in Uganda, the world’s second-largest refugee camp, where the foundation trained local coaches and equipped them to sustain long-term sports programming for youth.

“In Manila, the team explored similar possibilities, especially in training local coaches and players, delivering life-skills workshops, and creating pathways for ongoing support and resources.

“The delegation held positive discussions with sports leaders to facilitate the visit of professional and national basketball coaches and players from the Philippines to Goa and other regions of India. These proposed visits will include coaching clinics, leadership sessions, and exhibition matches aimed at inspiring young athletes,” said Kennedy.