Sports are kind of like tofu – they take on whatever flavour you want them to have.
Unfortunately, recent events have made football pretty sour. Don’t know what I’m talking about? The world’s most popular sport is suffering its biggest scandal in history, and some top FIFA officials got real-life red cards. Just check out #FIFAgate on Twitter.
While these men used football to mask their malicious purposes, others are using football to cook up something sweeter.
The folks at One Goal Asia and World Vision are using the sport’s massive popularity to end a massive problem. Since you probably know quite a bit (or at least the basics) about football, let’s go over what you might not know about: child malnutrition.
Trying to live a healthy life after being malnourished as a child is like trying to start a fire with a damp matchbook – it’s a severe disadvantage from the get-go. Chronic malnutrition leads to stunted growth for the rest of a child’s life, since they don’t get the nutrients they need to develop properly at an early age, and stunting can increase the risk of contracting non-communicable diseases like diabetes. Globally, 3.5 million children under 5 die every year from malnourishment.
It’s especially a problem in Asia, where one-quarter of 350 million children under 5 are chronically underweight. And not weighing enough is only one side of the problem – 16.5 million of those same children are overweight and obese, a number that’s only expected to rise in the future.
As part of One Goal’s campaign partnership, World Vision is seeking to end this problem and give these children a chance at a full, healthy life.
Together, we aim to reach 1.4 billion people in Asia in 47 countries to end child malnutrition by improving the health of 0-5-year-olds and encouraging healthy, active lifestyles in 6-18-year-olds.
You can partner with us in two ways:
1. Host your own One Goal match and be part of the global movement to end child malnutrition through football.
2. Give to One Goal’s current project: World Vision Malaysia’s efforts establish nutrition clubs for 10,000 children in Vietnam. These clubs educate caregivers on properly nourishing children under five, monitor individual children’s health, and educate community health workers to properly facilitate child care learned in the club’s sessions.
Football doesn’t have to be a sour subject – let’s make it sweet. Partner with One Goal to ensure nutrition for every child, and the only scandal we’ll have is how well Asian football teams are performing after their players grew up well-fed through effective child nutrition programmes and well-practiced in One Goal tournaments.