Street Children Football team honoured in Peshawar

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak welcomed the Pakistani Street Children Football Team to Peshawar here on Friday. In this connection, an event was organized at the CM House which consisted of many civil society members, politicians, students, street children of Peshawar and Media Personnel.
The Pakistani Street Children Football team came third in the Street Children World Cup at Brazil. The children came from Abbottabad and Swabi where they met many students, attended different institutions and were warmly welcomed by the local MPAs. They are visiting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 15th to 18th May 2014. Zafarullah Khattak Director Brains Institute is co-ordinating the team's visit to the province. In this regard he said "it's a big honour that even before the team landed in Pakistan, the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had invited the heroes to our province."
The purpose of the team's visit is to highlight the issues related to street children. Those who once loitered in the streets will be treated as state guests and the achievements of the team will help to inspire and motivate local street children to excel as well.
Nothing is impossible if one believes in oneself. The theme of the Street Children's visit is "I am somebody" and slogan is "No child should live on the streets" The tour has been organized by Brains Institute, Azad Foundation, Child Protection Project, Child Protection & Welfare Commission, Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, and Social Welfare Department. Meanwhile, Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will also be a co-sponsor of the visit.
Speaking at the event the CM KP said "Everyone calls them street children but they are state children as firstly these children will be our future leaders and secondly they have made us extremely proud. The Social Welfare Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will look into their plight and in the budget of 2014-15 an amount will be allocated for their uplift." He also announced Rs 15 lacs for these players and trainers.
One of the players Sami informed that "it was a long struggle for us; 14 to 15 years old. Most of us were factory workers and did odd jobs but when we heard that Muslim Hands is selecting children like us for World cup we immediately started practice. Over 200 players participated in which firstly 20 were selected and then ten finalists made it to the team. In only three months of practice we competited against 19 other countries at the world cup and defeated India which was the last year's winner with 13-0 goals."
From the CM house the children left for Islamia College where a mushaira will be held along with a moon-lit dinner. On 17th the team will visit the Special Education Centre at Hayatabad in the morning and later at noon will play a football match with a government school team at Qayyum Stadium. This will be an event open to general public. Same day the team will undertake a sight-seeing tour of Fort Balahisar and the day will conclude with a dinner. On 18th, the last day of their tour, the team will visit the Aaghosh Centre (street children's centre) and finally will have a farewell press conference hosted by the Peshawar Press Club at their premises'.