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Katutura Football for Hope Centre, for achievement of the UN Millenium Development Goals
by Christiane Burklein on Tuesday, 7th February 2012 in Materials
Sports have an important role to play bringing people together and improving their quality of life. The “Football for Hope” association, through FIFA and the “streetfootballworld” organisation, which supports a worldwide network of private and public partners who aim to introduce social change through football, constructs sports facilities in particularly disadvantaged areas, contributing to achievement of the “UN Millenium Development Goals” for improvement of quality of life.
A number of these centres were built in Africa at the time of the 2010 World Cup, including the Katutura Football for Hope Centre for people with mental disabilities, who are doubly disadvantaged, in partnership with Special Olympics Namibia, in a township in Windhoek, Namibia.
The facility meets the general guidelines for centres of this type, which are inspired by the goal of simplicity and therefore intrinsically sustainable, so that, for example, offices are housed in abandoned containers.
The centre in Katutura is arranged around a courtyard, with dressing rooms, a community meeting room, the offices and the football field itself. It was built out of readily available materials: concrete, bricks and ventilated structures, of course. Big platform roofs offer shelter from sun and rain.
Here the project had to take into account special safety requirements guaranteeing the users’ safety and supervision, in view of their condition. But this did not affect its general nature as a great place to enjoy the world’s favourite sport.
Project Lead: Football for Hope http://www.streetfootballworld.org/football-for-hope2
Project Partner: Architecture for Humanity http://www.architectureforhumanity.com, streefootballworld http://www.streetfootbalworld.org
Sponsor: FIFA
Contractor: E. Marks Building Contractors
Location: Katutura, Windhoek, Namibia
Photographs: Marcus Weiss, Tommy Calhoun
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