Last week I spotted a new follower on my Instagram page, an account called @boots.4.abene
Given that the pilot village for my charity Lighting Up Lives focusses on creating autonomy in the village of Abéné in Senegal, this new follower of course caught my attention.
It turns out that Olly Lane, a 12 year old boy from Woburn Sands in the UK created not just the account, but also the project to collect 100 pairs of football boots for the village kids in Abéné.
His dream is that every child around the world should have a pair of football boots, and Abéné has become his starting point.
I reached out to him as soon as I saw what he was doing. I wanted to offer him praise, gratitude and support. His mum (who had showed him the Lighting Up Lives web-site) told me that when he received my message he went to school not just motivated, but beaming.
Olly’s dream was sparked when his parents took him out of school for six months to back pack around South East Asia. And when he was there he saw kids playing soccer in flip flops.
In our busy consumer lead lives, travelling to understand and experience how other people from other cultures live is certainly one way to ignite the spirit of giving.
And thanks to what Olly saw he today shares the same values as his fellow footballer Sadio Mané, the Liverpool winger who won player of the year in 2019, and who comes from a village close to Abéné. Sadio who gives significant amounts of his earnings to charity recently said ‘Why would I want 10 Ferraris? How would that help me or the world’.
Both Olly and Sadio understand that giving is what brings happiness, not getting nor having.
The impact of Olly’s project on Abéné’s kids soccer team is already going to be huge.
But beyond that, the impact of Olly’s values and actions are inspiring and touching everyone that learns of his story. It’s amazing. And you can join him.
If these are the values that are instilled in the next generation then all is well. There is hope for tomorrow.