Meghan Howard is the retail operations specialist for Feed My Starving Children. 

Meet Paul. He is 17 years old and lives with his grandmother and three siblings in a small home in Rakai, Uganda. After losing his father to AIDS, Paul had to begin earning an income to pay his own school fees and support his family.

His job became walking several miles each morning to the closest well to fetch water for various people in his village.

After a while, piped water was brought to Paul’s village and his services were no longer needed by his neighbors.

Paul approached FMSC’s food partner, the Rakai Orphans Development Initiative (RODI), to see if he could restore his income by utilizing another one of his skills: making soccer balls!

Growing up, Paul had perfected his skill at creating soccer balls out of dried banana leaves in order to play football with his friends.

Once the FMSC MarketPlace heard his story, it didn’t take long to make our first purchase to support his livelihood. Since then, FMSC has purchased 880 soccer balls from Paul and his 8 friends who he has now brought alongside him to be a part of his business venture.

The boys are able to pay school fees and pay for their uniforms with the income made from the soccer balls.

Paul is very bright, disciplined and works hard to earn top scores in school. The RODI staff believes Paul will be a future leader in the community. Paul is a resourceful young man who loves school and soccer. He would like to be a doctor when he grows up.

To purchase these Ugandan soccer balls, CLICK HERE.