Rizki grew up in Bandung, West Java under considerably difficult circumstances. He believes in sport as a tool for social change and is now fighting to prevent young people from taking drugs. Read more about his moving story and how he uses the power of football to make his community a better place.

QUICK FACTS

Rizki is a full-time staff for the NGO Rumah Cemara. He has shared his knowledge gained during the Young Coach Education Programme with seven peers at Rumah Cemara. Together they developed a new social football project on drug prevention and world with over 500 children on a daily basis.

RIZKI

Project: Indonesia, August 2014 – May 2015

Parent Organisation: Rumah Cemara

Born: 1987

Nationality: Indonesia

Project Indonesia | Facts
7
Peer Young Coaches
500
Benefiting Children

MY STORY

“I am from Bandung on Java. My mum passed away when I was 12 years old. Since this moment, I lived with my older brother, because my father worked in another city. I grew up as a slum-kid fully depending on myself.

We didn’t have lots of money. I even had to stop school once. But thanks to the support of my older sister, I could study at university although I couldn’t buy any books during the first four semesters. After university, I started to work as a volunteer for the NGO Rumah Cemara. Now I am full-time staff and work there as assistant grants manager. I learned a lot and want to support the NGO by implementing many sport and development programmes.

I have loved football since I was a kid. I want to use football to increase the quality of life of those who use drugs. Thanks to the education of Scort and the Football Club Social Alliance, I could realise this idea. Besides me, seven other women and men from Rumah Cemara are educated as Young Coaches.

We developed a new social football project. The target group are drug addicted youths who are all sniffing glue. And some of them are addicted to anti-depressives and alcohol. This programme is very useful and helps us so much during our work. Some of us Young Coaches also work with street children who face strong stigma and discrimination.

Through football, we can build a connection, a relation of trust to these children. They feel that we are not only coaches, but more than that. At first, the children didn’t want to tell us about anything. But now they tell us about their activities and problems in life. There are wonderful moments when we can motivate them to change their habits, e.g. to wash their stinking clothes, to take a shower or to clean their hands before they eat.

It’s the little things we try to change. We achieve a lot by getting together during football training or other activities. We are happy that we can change so much through football.”

GALLERY RIZKI

Young Coaches

Our Young Coaches are community leaders and role models in less privileged societies. They commit themselves to support the children of their communities by conveying important social topics (conflict resolution, inclusion, HIV prevention, etc.) through football. Each of the Young Coaches represents a unique personal story.