|
TWO HIGH school friends in the 1970’s—La Sallites
Danny Moran, the former president and owner of Red Ribbon
Bakeshop and Ed Formoso, ex-rockstar and pinoy record
producer—e-mailed each other over several weeks late last year and
agreed to organize a grassroots development project in football.
Those emails are now a reality
with the recipient being Gawad Kalinga, a poor community close to
Moran’s heart and whose only football team was born from an
initiative of Formoso just over a year ago.
Both men sat down in February
with GK youth leaders Mari Oquiñena and Paolo Rivera to discuss the
football concept. In that meeting Moran volunteered to finance the
project and agreed to tap “Paolo Panadero Inc.,” a livelihood
program that he created for GK, as a partner. It was also decided
that the focus in 2007 would be on GK communities located in Metro
Manila.
”The concept is to initially
teach GK children to appreciate and love the game, organizing them
into teams to play and have fun. Our aim is to promote the idea that
football can be played everywhere and in every way,” said Formoso.
“As a 10-year-old we played
among cousins and friends in a cemented area with two light posts, a
meter apart, as our goal. And about two years ago, my teenage
daughters and nieces played in the back garden using two mono-block
chairs as goals,” he added.
|
