PlayOnside
finally had a weekend without any event scheduled, so we had to do something
about it. Suddenly the Phop Phra Friendship Fiesta was born!
Phop Phra, an agricultural region south of Mae Sot, has been close to the hearts of PlayOnside for many years. Migrant Burmese workers are working long hours for low wages on the endless plantations in the region, and with the workers come their families. In the area, there are eight different migrant schools, all of different size. Most of the schools, have regularly participated in our two annual tournaments in Mae Sot. Every Saturday morning, half a dozen school buses are filled smiling children with colorful PlayOnside uniforms, eagerly anticipating to meet and play with their peers in Mae Sot.
The long-term enthusiasm and engagement for the PlayOnside program, not only from the children living in Phop Phra, but also from teachers, headmasters, parents and drivers. Over the last year, PlayOnside has rented a field of land, adjacent to Rose Field, one of the migrant schools in region. Almost every weekday, PlayOnside has been driving from Mae Sot to Phop Phra, a 45 minutes driver on a scooter, to provide regular football training for the different schools. This has been a one-year pilot project, to see the commitment, and enthusiasm for the schools, and after this encouraging start, we have decided to build proper facilities at our land that now is rented for long-term. The building of the new football field will start late 2019 and finish within the first quarter of 2020. There will come a more detailed article on PlayOnside.org about this project later.
The Phop
Phra Friendship Fiesta was a weekend of football festivals where all the
different schools participated. Around 150 children, boys and girls
participated in the two-day event, with games activates and a football
tournament. From PlayOnside, this was the first time Yadanar Oo and O-Shape
were project managers for a PlayOnside project, and the two ambitious women put
together a spectacular program. PlayOnside is thrilled about the abundance of
leadership talent growing within the organization, and we are excited for both
to lead more and bigger projects in the future.
The weekend
was a great success, and the perfect warm-up to the upcoming fourth edition of
Mingalarbar Mae Sot League, starting in the middle of November.
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