What the Portland Timbers are doing to make the world a better place

During the 1994 Rwandan genocide Rayon Sports FC's goalkeeper Eric Murangwa almost got murdered by Rwandan militias because he is Tutsi, one of the Rwandan ethnicities which was massacred. After that episode he founded the Togetherness Youth Cooperative, a youth sports academy for boys and girls. They train in the mad, though. Until now, when Portland Timbers nonprofit organization Fields for All took their case and started raising money to build them a FIFA regulation pitch with surface upgrade.

The nexus between Portland Timbers and Togetherness Youth Cooperative was African Road, another nonprofit organization. In this case, it's a Portland's nonprofit dedicate to find financing to projects around Africa that enhance the youth community. Their leaders, Kelly Bean and Lori Martin, took the idea to the Timbers.

Mike Golub, Timbers' President of Bussiness, said that after he heard about the initiative of African Road to help Togetherness Youth Cooperative he took the Timbers on board although initially Fields for All was imagined just to build football fields around the metropolitan area of Portland, in Oregon.

So far, Fields for All has raised $236,000, of which $50,000 were donated directly by the Portland Timbers organization and the rest of the money was collected between the usually associates of the nonprofit. According to Eric Murangwa and his partner Steven Turikunkiko, $250,000 are needed to build the field were Togetherness Youth Cooperative will train the next generations of footballers of Rwanda, while they take that kids out of the streets. If you want to know more about the project, or donate, go to the online page of African Road.