In the small town of Mtubatuba on South Africa’s northeast coast, a simple, yet profound sign hangs outside the local football academy. It reads, “Be good. Do good.” Each day this summer, as Fjordi Mulla ’15 arrived at the academy to coach young South African soccer players, he thought about that sign.
“At first glance, I thought ‘Okay, that sounds simple enough!’ And it was, it truly was,” says Fjordi. “There was no simpler but yet detailed enough statement to be given as advice to whoever walked by; students, coaches, teachers or just citizens of Mtubatuba.”
As the weeks went by, Fjordi came to more fully realize the power of those words. The more he learned about South African culture, the deeper his understanding became.
“I learned about respecting elders and family values and traditions,” Fjordi explains. “Being a good person, morally, culturally and socially is incredibly important. But doing good; helping people, being a volunteer in your community and stepping up to leadership positions is an exceptional feeling one gets, as it builds character development and a sense of happiness that comes from within someone’s character and soul. This will definitely be something that I will bring back to Taft and I hope I spread it in the community as much as possible.”
Fjordi traveled to South Africa with Woza Soccer Adventures, a new organization that develops and leads educational service trips for high school soccer players. Woza was founded by world traveler and soccer devotee Chris Kaimmer on his deep belief in the ability of soccer to connect people from different countries and cultures. Fjordi’s trip was the program’s first.
“Throughout my time there my roles ranged from coach, soccer player, mentor, and leader, to role model, global citizen, researcher, student, and volunteer,” notes Fjordi. I was a coach and a soccer player at Mtubatuba Football Academy (MFA), and a volunteer for support system groups that help kids with HIV/AIDS. Other times, I would do research on how prevalent HIV/AIDS was in Mtubatuba and South Africa and what can be done to help the atrocious disease. At all times though, it was my responsibility to represent not only Woza Soccer Adventures, but also America through showing leadership skills, responsibility, active listening and most of all, respect of all of my surroundings and environment.”
The common denominators in each of Fjordi’s roles were clear: Doing good, and playing soccer.
“Some days we would dedicate our whole mornings and afternoons to volunteer work in cleaning up soccer fields. The fields were in horrible condition as glass and garbage were covering huge portions of the grass, and often sand fields! A lot of the players in the teams would play barefoot as well, which was very dangerous,” Fjordi says. “Other times, we would go on two-to-three-day trips reaching out to orphanage-based soccer organizations that helped underdeveloped communities, again through soccer. A few mornings we connected with people who were HIV/AIDS positive or girls who were stigmatized for playing soccer in South Africa! The discussions with both of these groups were powerful and very eye-opening because I truly understood how they were viewed by the society.”
Fjordi’s travel was funded in part by a Meg Page ’74 Fellowship. Page g rants are given in the spirit of Meg Page '74, whose courage and commitment to improving health care and medical treatment inspired others.
For more informaton visit wozasoccer.com