The Gift of Education - A Way Out of Poverty

There is something profoundly joyful that our short-term mission trip participants experience when they go to one of the ten countries where Sports Outreach serves. Seeing young boys and girls smile with glee because they get to kick a soccer ball around with you is a humbling and happy experience. But you can imagine the surge of emotion when you find out that a major percentage of the children they interact with live in poverty and receive no to very little education. It is extremely likely that they won’t ever be able to get out of poverty unless they do receive an education.

This scenario is the reality for hundreds of millions of children worldwide. The data is staggering, even in some of the countries Sports Outreach serves:

· In Uganda, nearly 50% of children don’t have any schooling past seventh grade, and 41% of people subsist on under $1.90 a day.

· In Kenya, 90% of children from poor households fail to complete eighth grade.

· In El Salvador, students who graduate high school are 21% more likely to avoid poverty than those who drop out before graduating.

Sports Outreach’s LEAD (Learning and Equipping through Academics and Discipleship) Program provides educational resources to our ministry sites that are critical for students to be successful academically and especially to remain in school. As we have for the past couple years, we will send monthly stories of the children impacted by our LEAD program.

This letter contains photos and information about two active Sports Outreach participants, Allison in El Salvador, and Moses in Kenya, who could both use your help to be integrated into our LEAD Program and receive valuable education tools for their journey out of poverty.

I suggest a gift of $35 a month to help sustain this program and help children like Allison and Moses. If $35 isn't possible, please choose an amount more comfortable for you - every gift counts!

Below is a testimony from Isaiah, a Kenyan LEAD program beneficiary, whose trajectory of life has been changed as a result of LEAD.

“My name is Isaiah Otieno Oluoch. I am the third born in my family of three boys and two girls. I joined SOM academy in grade three. The school was unique because teachers were friendly and always took their time to encourage us by sharing the Word of God. They also taught basic life skills, shared breakfast and lunch, and provided Vocational Bible School among other activities.

In the chess program I have represented SOM Chess Academy in various tournaments both nationally and internationally. This year I was declared the national champion of the U18 boys and represented Kenya in the African Youth Chess Championship in Cairo Egypt. It was my first time to ride a plane and also to travel outside East Africa.

Spiritually, I accepted Christ in August 2015, I now believe beyond a doubt that God’s word restores hope to the hopeless, faith to the faithless, and results in total transformation. My dream is to spread the Gospel of Christ to my colleagues, friends, and neighbors, nationally and internationally, giving people a chance to acknowledge the power of salvation (Matthew 28:19-20). Thank you, Sports Outreach, for your support that has helped make me what I am today. I am now hopeful for a bright future in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

All glory to God for Isaiah’s story! His testimony is what Sports Outreach is all about- restoring hope and transforming lives through the Word of God!

Serving Together,
Tom Hatton, COO, for the Sports Outreach Ministry Team

Story from January 2024