Kick for a Cause: A Score for Liberia

Various students from the Providence College community participated in the "Kick for A Cause" soccer tournament to benefit Liberia on Sunday, April 25. A total of seven teams were created to play a minimum of three games each.

The tournament was sponsored by the International Student Organization (ISO), the Balfour Center, and the Providence College Men's and Women's Soccer Teams to benefit an initiation ran by Tinacho Chitongo '10, president of ISO.

Last year Chitongo participated in the Grassroot Soccer movement. This movement promoted "Lose the Shoes" tournaments which helped benefit AIDS awareness. Given the success of last year's soccer tournament, Chitongo felt that holding another one this year would be the perfect way to help Project Liberia, an initiative started at PC by Teto Moulton ‘11, who was born and raised in Liberia. 

"I am friends with [Moulton], and I felt that I could help him out by organizing a soccer tournament," said Chitongo.

"Teto is involved in a charitable organization known as Brokan Sports, which engages young Liberians in South Providence through activities like soccer leagues," said Chitongo.
Moulton founded Project Liberia in order to increase involvement and awareness of his initiatives in the Brokan Sports movement at the College.

Moulton has collected used books from colleges and high schools throughout Rhode Island. These books will be used to stock a library, affiliated with Brokan Sports, which is based in Monrovia, Liberia. 

"The biggest issue at present is the fact that the organization has a lot of books in storage, but they need help getting them to Liberia, since shipping costs are expensive," said Chitongo. 

The goals of Project Liberia are as follows: to construct a public library in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, to construct schools in Montserrado, Buchanan, and Tubmanburg, and to extend involvement in the Brokan Sports youth development programs.

"In light of developing responsible young men and women, Brokan Sports hopes to create the Elite Academy, which will serve as a preparatory school for kids with advanced intellectual and athletic abilities," said Chitongo.

Originally, the tournament was called the "Kick for a Cause: Barefoot Challenge," in honor of last year's Grassroot "Lose the Shoes" movement. With the threat of rain, Chitongo called for a change in plans.

"We chose not to make it barefoot any longer, because we did not want people playing barefoot in the rain,"  said Chitongo. "Thankfully the weather held up and we were able to get a decent number of people." 

Participating teams in the tournament were charged five dollars per teammate. "Kick for a Cause" still managed to raise about $200 for Project Liberia.