Street Child World Cup 2010

The Deloitte Street Child World Cup, initiated by Amos Trust, was hosted by South African organisation Umthombo Street Children, one of Amos’ partners. One of Umthombo’s aims is to change the way that street children are perceived.

Umthombo’s artist in residence, Mxolisi Sithole, asked Siye, one street child, how he viewed street children, Siye drew a hive of bees, saying: "We are like bees because we all aim for one goal, to have a better and a sweet life. We are normal children like any other human being but people are scared of us. This is because some of us do bite when we get irritated, but it doesn’t mean we are bad. Like bees we always stick together no matter how bad the situation is.”

All images from One Voice: Deloitte Street Child World Cup exhibition at the Foundling Museum, London (14 September to 9 October 2010) Photograph: PR

The Tanzanian team took part in an arts workshop, facilitated by Momentum Arts, in which they found ways of talking about themselves and their experiences. They created this collage of giraffes: “My feet are in the city, but with my long neck, I can see a better future ahead.” Photograph: PR

Mxolisi Sithole, Umthombo’s artist in residence, made this lino cut of Philani, player for the Umthombo All Stars. The image of the player gazing across the football pitch represents excitement and anticipation at the prospect of the inaugural Street Child World Cup, the collective aspiration of the people involved and the ongoing hopes and dreams of the street children.
Photograph: Momentum Arts ©

Bulelwa Ngantweni-Hewitt co-founded Umthombo Street Children 15 years ago. She is a former street child – as are over half of Umthombo’s staff members. Umthombo works to engage children who are living on the streets in Durban through outreach and activities including sports and art. They successfully reintegrate over 100 children every year.

Photograph: Momentum Arts ©

Images of the South African team training for the Deloitte street child World Cup.
The quote reads: "When people see us by the streets, they say that we are street boys. But when they see us playing soccer, they say that we are people like them. They are people like us." It came from Nkosinathi, the team captain, who is now off the streets.

Photograph: Momentum Arts ©

Children who participated in the Street Child World Cup worked with artist facilitators to create hexagons reflecting aspects of street children’s lives. These hexagons were connected together to form huge sculptures. This hexagon is one of over sixty in ‘The Hive’, reflecting the central metaphor of bees. Here, the children have drawn portraits of one another.
Photograph: Momentum Arts ©

As well as the world cup, the children also took part in a conference focusing on issues such as home, protection from violence, and access to health and education. Their discussions were based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the rights commonly denied to street children.

Here the children share images of home. Despite differences in language and background, for nearly all participants, home meant family.
Photograph: Momentum Arts ©

Visiting teams from Tanzania, India, Brazil, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and Ukraine, as well as the South African team, were all made up of 14-16 year olds with experience of living on the streets. Participating street children spoke of violence that had forced them onto the streets and violence that met them there.
Photograph: Momentum Arts ©

Aneta was painted by Meg Wroe, a London-based artist, who worked as a volunteer in the arts programme of the Deloitte Street Child World Cup. On her return, she produced a series of eight portraits – one child from each team. Her aim has been to capture the beauty, dignity and intelligence of these ‘forgotten’ children.
Photograph: Momentum Arts ©

The Brazilian team for the Street Child World Cup was co-ordinated by ABC Trust. They created a fictional character, Gabriela, who enabled them to represent the experiences of thousands of children who struggle to survive on the streets in Brazil every day. Brazilian graffiti artist, Speto, created this image for Gabriela.
Photograph: Momentum Arts ©