VN kids to join World Cup side event
Thua Thien-Hue, (VNS/VNA) - Football for All in Vietnam (FFAV) is
sending four young amateur footballers to Russia to participate in FIFA’s
Football for Hope Festival 2018.
The festival, which will take place from June 25 to July 5 in Moscow, is an
official FIFA event that will be held on the sidelines of the ongoing World
Cup. The Vietnamese team of four will take part in the event along with 47
teams from other countries.
The team is composed of two girls and two boys from the Xuan Phu Patronage and
Vocational Centre, a local orphanage in central province of Thua Thien- Hue.
Ha Danh Du, a member of the Vietnamese team, said participating in the festival
is a great chance for him to show off his football skills and learn from other
participants. It is a dream that comes true for a disadvantaged child like him,
he said.
Du and teammates Doan Thi Huong, Le Thi Ngoc Anh, and Truong Dinh Hoang were
housed at the orphanage after their parents passed away due to diseases or
accidents, and their families could not manage to feed them anymore.
The four members of the Vietnamese team and other children in the orphanage had
regular football practice sessions last year thanks to a playground built by
the FFAV in the facility. The FFAV said the four were chosen not based on their
excellence in football, but on their attendance in regular practice sessions.
The FFAV, a project run by the Football Association of Norway, began its
operations in Vietnam in 2003. It is headquartered in Thua Thien- Hue and works
mainly to promote community football, focusing on rural children.-VNS/VNA