25 Years of Laureus: A Passport to Opportunity
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The very first programme supported by Laureus Sport for Good is still going strong – and one of its earliest members became its driving force.
It’s a typically busy mid-summer morning in the slums of Mathare on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Between the seemingly endless rows of mud huts are streets so full there’s barely room to move.
In amongst it all is a small boy by the name of David Thiru. He weaves his way through the crowd as he eyes the clearing up ahead.
He can just about make out the set of goal posts standing on the pitch which has become his destination on this daily pilgrimage. He jinks to the left, readjusts his body to engineer some space. The pre-match warm-up starts here, it would seem.
One of the neighbours spots him and laughs.
There he is, carrying that football again!
In amongst it all is a small boy by the name of David Thiru. He weaves his way through the crowd as he eyes the clearing up ahead.
He can just about make out the set of goal posts standing on the pitch which has become his destination on this daily pilgrimage. He jinks to the left, readjusts his body to engineer some space. The pre-match warm-up starts here, it would seem.
One of the neighbours spots him and laughs.
There he is, carrying that football again!
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“My life was all about football,” David recalls. “I always used to have this football that I would make myself. When I had any free time, I would be on the pitch, whether alone or with friends. I would always be playing my football. I was obsessed.”
Growing up as one of six children in a one-bedroom house was tough. Clean water and electricity were in short supply. Opportunity was also hard to find. But from an early age, David saw football as a route to a better life.
By the time the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) established itself as a youth sports and community development project in 1987, David was already the talk of the schoolyard, and classmates who had started a new team at MYSA made him their next signing. It was a life-changing moment.
“I remember wearing those branded vests – with MYSA on them – the first time we played. It was such an exciting time because it was the only thing we were talking about in school; and not just our school, all the schools around Mathare, because we were in a league. They were all asking, ‘How is your team, what position are you?’.
“Those were things that we had never been seen before. There were prizes to be won, and I was on the winning team. It made me well known within the slum areas, within the school.”
Growing up as one of six children in a one-bedroom house was tough. Clean water and electricity were in short supply. Opportunity was also hard to find. But from an early age, David saw football as a route to a better life.
By the time the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) established itself as a youth sports and community development project in 1987, David was already the talk of the schoolyard, and classmates who had started a new team at MYSA made him their next signing. It was a life-changing moment.
“I remember wearing those branded vests – with MYSA on them – the first time we played. It was such an exciting time because it was the only thing we were talking about in school; and not just our school, all the schools around Mathare, because we were in a league. They were all asking, ‘How is your team, what position are you?’.
“Those were things that we had never been seen before. There were prizes to be won, and I was on the winning team. It made me well known within the slum areas, within the school.”
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While winning was fun, David soon realised there were far more important lessons to be learned alongside his team-mates.
“You have to win with discipline, and you have to win by participating in community service,” he says. “In our first year, our team did not participate in the community service, so we had to start a match two-nil down as our penalty. That helped me understand the importance of not just focusing on winning but also on thinking about others.
He was made team captain, before taking a break to focus on his studies and then landing an accounting job for a Norwegian chemical company. But when faced with a surprise offer from MYSA courtesy of founder Bob Munro – who died earlier this year – David decided to follow his heart and return to his community.
“When Bob came to me to join MYSA, I thought ‘Yeah, MYSA will give me more fulfilment, more joy’,” he reflects. “It was an emotional decision. But it was the right decision.”By the turn of the century, Laureus Sport for Good had been founded and made MYSA their first programme (25 years later, more than 300 programmes in over 40 countries are supported by the unique and influential Laureus network).
“You have to win with discipline, and you have to win by participating in community service,” he says. “In our first year, our team did not participate in the community service, so we had to start a match two-nil down as our penalty. That helped me understand the importance of not just focusing on winning but also on thinking about others.
He was made team captain, before taking a break to focus on his studies and then landing an accounting job for a Norwegian chemical company. But when faced with a surprise offer from MYSA courtesy of founder Bob Munro – who died earlier this year – David decided to follow his heart and return to his community.
“When Bob came to me to join MYSA, I thought ‘Yeah, MYSA will give me more fulfilment, more joy’,” he reflects. “It was an emotional decision. But it was the right decision.”By the turn of the century, Laureus Sport for Good had been founded and made MYSA their first programme (25 years later, more than 300 programmes in over 40 countries are supported by the unique and influential Laureus network).
By the turn of the century, Laureus Sport for Good had been founded and made MYSA their first programme (25 years later, more than 300 programmes in over 40 countries are supported by the unique and influential Laureus network).
That supercharged the development of MYSA in the community, and David was part of its growth. Sport remained at its heart, but MYSA also set up library projects and health education initiatives. The programme provided pathways to keep its members away from gang crime and David was now a mentor, with lived experience of the dangers of which he was warning the young people in MYSA.
“My very close friend James, we grew up with him, we were playing football with him in the early days at MYSA and later as we grew older,” he says. “He got into bad company and started doing drugs and drinking, and eventually he sadly passed away very early, at 24.”
Yet David’s message is one of hope rather than despair and he believes that his continued activism can not only continue to lift up those within his community, but also shine a light on it that can be seen throughout the Laureus Sport for Good network.
“It is my hope that whoever hears my story can also put themselves in my shoes,” he says. “Sport has the power to change the world. I've seen it. I've lived it.”
That supercharged the development of MYSA in the community, and David was part of its growth. Sport remained at its heart, but MYSA also set up library projects and health education initiatives. The programme provided pathways to keep its members away from gang crime and David was now a mentor, with lived experience of the dangers of which he was warning the young people in MYSA.
“My very close friend James, we grew up with him, we were playing football with him in the early days at MYSA and later as we grew older,” he says. “He got into bad company and started doing drugs and drinking, and eventually he sadly passed away very early, at 24.”
Yet David’s message is one of hope rather than despair and he believes that his continued activism can not only continue to lift up those within his community, but also shine a light on it that can be seen throughout the Laureus Sport for Good network.
“It is my hope that whoever hears my story can also put themselves in my shoes,” he says. “Sport has the power to change the world. I've seen it. I've lived it.”
