World Cup: The Simple Joy of the Soccer Ball

<p><em>"They call it by many names: the sphere, the round, the tool, the globe, the balloon, the projectile." —</em>Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, <em>"</em>Soccer in Sun and Shadow"</p>
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<p>As the World Cup returns to Brazil, it’s a good time to appreciate the simple joy that <a href="http://inspiredgifts.unicefusa.org/gifts/soccer-balls">a soccer ball</a> can bring—to boys, to girls, to children of any age.</p>
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<p>Wherever there is no ball, <a href="http://nyti.ms/1psuve6">people find ways to make one</a> using any materials at hand. Pelé, Brazil’s greatest soccer hero, learned the game with a ball that his father made out of a sock stuffed with rags.</p>
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<p>UNICEF does its best to make things easier for children and parents, placing two soccer balls into every <a href="http://www.unicef.org/supply/index_40375.html">UNICEF recreation kit</a>. Some 70,000 balls were delivered last year,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">procured at local factories or&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">shipped from the UNICEF Supply Division warehouse in Copenhagen. They went to, among other places, camps for Syrian refugees, child-friendly spaces for typhoon survivors in the Philippines and centers for displaced children in Mali—anywhere that children need to step away from suffering and experience the magic of play.</span></p>
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<p>The photos below, taken by UNICEF through the years, show that the pleasure of the beautiful game is universal.</p>
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<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">At a camp in&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Port-au-Prince, Haiti f</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">or people affected by the January 2010 earthquake.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">© UNICEF/HTIA2010-00363/Ramoneda</span></p>
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<p>Outside a family’s tent shelter in 2013 in the Tal Al Abiad settlement for Syrian refugees in Baalbek, Lebanon. © UNICEF/NYHQ2013-1387/Noorani</p>
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<p>At Golachhari Government Primary School in Rangamati in 2014, one of the most disadvantaged and isolated areas of Bangladesh. © UNICEF/BANA2014-00554/Mawa</p>
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<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">At a container that serves as a temporary kindergarten in a settlement for displaced persons in Sabirabad, Azerbaijan, 2004. © UNICEF/NYHQ2004-0607/Pirozzi</span></p>
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<p>In Mkangeni village, Malawi in 2010.&nbsp;© UNICEF/MLWB2010-355/Noorani</p>
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<p>Outside a UNICEF-assisted transit center for recently released former child soldiers in 2012 in N’dele, Central African Republic. © UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0898/Sokol</p>
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<p>On a street in the heavily damaged "frontline" suburb of Dobrinja in the besieged city of Sarajevo in 1994. © UNICEF/NYHQ1994-0910/LeMoyne</p>
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<p>Near a settlement for displaced families in the village of Nyamukwara, Zimbabwe, 2006. © UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0451/Pirozzi</p>
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<p>At a boarding school for nomadic Bedouin children in the village of Shola, Syria, 2006. © UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0738/Noorani</p>
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<p>On the lawn of an institution for children with disabilities in 1950s Italy. © UNICEF/NYHQ1950-0001/Seymour</p>
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<p>On the streets of the Tarlabasi section of Istanbul, Turkey in 2005. © UNICEF/NYHQ2005-1186/LeMoyne</p>
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<p>In a field&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">used for play by refugees from Kosovo in 1998,&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">near the town of Bajram Curri, Albania.&nbsp;© UNICEF/NYHQ1998-0383/LeMoyne</span></p>