Vijana Amani Pamoja is a Kenyan organisation that uses football as a tool to educate young people. By providing workshops and skills training, and focusing on the healthy lifestyle inherent to the sport, it seeks to improve the social integration and health of young Kenyans and better prepare them for the world of work.

Founded in 2003, this non-governmental organization centres its educational projects around the main scourges affecting Kenyan society.

In Kenya there are several diseases, such as AIDS and tuberculosis, which local health authorities are particularly equipped to tackle, and whose spread can be limited with adequate prevention. With this in mind, Vijana Amani Pamoja takes advantage of the football tournaments it organizes to offer screening for these diseases.

In the organisation’s Show Corruption ‘REDCARD’ programme, young people explore issues related to corruption and learn the skills and behaviour needed to become better citizens and lead honest lives.

It also runs a Mrembo Program, which help girls and women aged 10 to 21 from disadvantaged backgrounds to build self-confidence through sporting and educational activities.

In 2016, former England legend John Barnes visited the organisation and met some of the young people in its programmes. He used the opportunity to remind everyone: “For young people, passion and football are the same, no matter where you are in the world. The only difference is the opportunities offered to you.”

And it is precisely these opportunities that Vijana Amani Pamoja, one of the many organizations supported by the FIFA Foundation Community Programme, has been working successfully to provide for more than 15 years.