Borneo Football International Foundation - Indonesia
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BFIF offers an integrated programme in a remote area of Indonesia to support the healthy development of children and young people through football.
Opportunities for young people in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan are severely constrained by economic hardship. The minimum wage is well under $200 a month, and many students drop out of school for financial reasons, preferring to help their parents by starting work early.
The Borneo Football International Foundation opened its academy in 2015 with just 14 children, providing not only a wide range of football activities but also health and educational programs. These children were eager to learn, and responded well to having structured training sessions and using English terms during the training. The project team found that using these language terms, related to the rules and basic concepts of the sport, is an effective way of reinforcing English language learning.
Students are also given worksheets to extend their English learning at home, before moving to a second stage of English learning supported by the YUM Vocational training centre, and complemented by Computer courses.
Word quickly spread in the local area, and by 2019, the Academy had 340 players including three all-girls teams, and reached more than 1000 students in local schools through football training, health and education programmes. The BFIF programme supports children to aspire to being good students and young people with strong ethics, helping them reach their highest potential.
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The Foundation is now working in several areas and collaborating with schools and the local Education Department.
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During the pandemic, BFIF had to suspend its football programme, but carried out community outreach to families to provide heath, nutritional and educational packs to help them stay safe and keep motivated. It also provided 150 families with food packages as part of earmarked donations after the month of fast. The football programme has now resumed, and BFIF has participated in several tournaments this year. The programme has gone from strength to strength every year and with SDB’s help, in 2022 they were able to take on a full-time certified nurse, consolidating the health and nutrition program with first aid assistance during trainings.
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An exciting recent piece of news is that they have been successful in obtaining funding towards a new building that they will run indoor sports from, and expand their capacity for running events and attracting investment from the wider community. We're very pleased we were in a position to provide a large grant to match fund this new initiative, along with other Susila Dharma Nationals. By 2024 this worthwhile project and its grand new facilities should be open. In the meantime, you can see the below photos of the building work in progress which give an indication of the scale and ambition of the project.
