An interview with Bill Gates and International Peace Day
Peace One Day’s One Day One Goal campaign that ISF was proud to participate in.
Sunday 21 September is International Peace Day and our partners at Coaches Across Continents and Peace One Day are taking this opportunity to promote peace – through Football of course! CAC is a global organisation that coaches football coaches around the world in order to increase social impact and peace through sport. We were delighted to begin a partnership with CAC in 2013 when they first came to train our coaches, and we were thrilled to have them back in August this year when Nick Gates, the founder of CAC, joined the delegation of on their return to ISF. Find out about the amazing impact of the two week training course here.
While CAC were with us in Cambodia, we also caught up with Nick’s father, Bill Gates, the ex-professional UK footballer who played for Middlesbrough F.C., and his wife Judith, who is a CAC board member and programme advisor. Though football has long brought people together, when Bill began his professional football career, which spanned from 1961 to 1974, football for social impact, development and peace was far from the agenda… it was a very different football world indeed!
Talking about how football has changed over the years, Bill reflected that the maximum wage for professional players was initially just £20 per week (not much more than the £18 that his father and other men earned down the mines!) When Bill began his football career, professional footballers either chose football or education, however, Bill was unique in that he took the unprecedented step to do both. He applied for and was granted flexible working which enabled him to train hard in the mornings and study hard in the evenings until he completed his accountancy exams.
Looking back on his career, Bill recalled the highlights which included being captain of the English Youth Team and playing against some of the greats like Francis Lee, Johnny Walker, Bobby Charlton, George Best and Ron Harris. He also enjoyed raking up a 13 professional goals (not bad for a centre half!) but he was quick to point out that the goals weren’t the objective; it was the teamwork and the game that mattered most.
Today, Bill shares that love of football with young players through his involvement with CAC and acts as a figurehead for the organisation. Both Bill and his wife Judith were involved in the planning behind CAC with Bill on the accountancy end and Judith on the education end. They have visited CAC projects in Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Namibia where Bill delights in inspiring young players and seeing the smiles that football brings to disadvantaged youths around the world. Judith also finds the CAC trips extremely rewarding and compares hearing about the projects and actually visiting them to the difference between “monochrome and technicolour – the sights, smells, challenges, the poverty and what a difference the little things can help make.” Asked about their impressions of Cambodia, Judith said that this trip had really stretched the ‘elastic boundaries’ of her comfort levels; despite the depth of poverty and the brutality of Cambodia’s recent past, the recovery, hope and optimism of the people is inspiring. Bill also was saddened by the poverty he witnessed in the communities ISF works with but found the smiles of the people to be infectious; seeing the youngsters smiling and enjoy themselves really made his heart swell!
Players participate in one of many games that CAC taught ISF coaches, Circle of Friends, which builds confidence and creates a safe environment.
ISF’s Football Programme seeks to both spread smiles and laughter and bring about positive change for the children and communities we work with. While in Cambodia, Judith ran a Child Protection training session with ISF coaches – a challenging session by the very nature of its content. By using techniques like standing on an icebox so that someone is towering over you, it reminded the coaches of what it’s like to be a child and they learnt about the importance of creating a safe space. Through sessions like these, the CAC training aims to support coaches to help children develop both as individuals and as players, and effectively tackle issues such as conflict resolution. Putting their skills to good use, in the run up to Peace Day 2014, ISF coaches have included activities on confidence building, gender equity, understanding violence, teamwork and respect, and challenging stereotypes.
Circle of Friends encourages players to use their voices and listen to each other.
ISF is delighted that CAC training is developing our coaches skills and helping them to develop the players and the communities we work with. We were also very proud when Judith commended us on our organisation and professionalism and Nick said “ISF’s coaches are some of the best we have ever worked with and the female coaches found their voices and became leaders”! However, the feedback we received from one of the local coaches, Khiev Puthi, who took part in the training really summed it up when he said:
“To me and other deaf people, the training was really, really important. We do not need to have professional football skills, but we can still change the world. Thanks to this training, we can share our knowledge with others, to help change their lives and to make positive social change.”
