Why

What is our goal?

Our vision is to help children transition from street children to school children. The Congo Peace School will provide an education to children unable to afford school fees, taking them off the streets, out of the mines, and into classrooms, so they are no longer easy targets of warlords. Education is a powerful tool for global change, and when given the opportunity for an education, these children can become productive leaders of Congo and become a solution with the capacity to reverse years of devastation. With your partnership, we will build the Congo Peace School to ensure that the children have a safe place to gain an education and become ambassadors of peace.

Why is this necessary?

The fabric of Congolese society has been destroyed by civil wars over the last 20 years. Children are recruited as soldiers and rape is used as a weapon of war. Education is the means to change the equation.

Who are we?

The Dillon Henry Foundation (Dillonslist), a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of others in conjunction with Amani Mataboro, an inspiring community leader who works for the betterment of the children in the DRC.

Why build a new school?

In the last six years ABFEC (Actions pour le Bien être de la Femme et de l’Enfant au Congo), a local NGO in Congo co-founded by its Executive Director Amani Matabaro, has sent more than 755 children to school.

Currently, those schools consist of ramshackle, small classrooms. During the 7-8 month rainy season, the poorly built schools leak water into the classrooms, and schools are forced to close for long periods of time. Class size ranges from 50 to 80 children per teacher, providing almost no opportunity for individual attention or guidance.

What is special about this new school?

This school will be tailored to the needs of the Congo. The students will be taught lessons of gender equality and peace. Students will acquire knowledge, increased income-generating skills, and greater public awareness of community, national, regional and international issues and concerns.

Tell me more!

The Congo Peace School will operate two programs of formal education, the morning formal Elementary Education program to serve children according to current Congolese curriculum guidelines, and the afternoon Secondary Education curriculum, entitled “Remedial Teaching Program.” All classes will be capped at no more than 40 students per classroom.

The Remedial Teaching Program Curriculum is uniquely planned to end the pervasive view of Congolese women as permanent victims, and instead empower them to be active participants in Congolese society, contributing to sustainable change and development in the Congo, Africa, and the world. The Remedial Teaching Program will include a percentage of male students (not to exceed 50%) to empower a new generation of leaders of both genders with an understanding of human rights and equality.

The Congo Peace School will implement an additional curriculum of Peace & Reconciliation courses in both elementary and remedial programs in response to the pressing need to provide an education in non-violent conflict resolution, communication, and human rights. Most important, the curriculum will serve as a Peace and Conflict Resolution Incubator to educate the youngest generation on conflict transformation and to prepare the future leaders of the Congo to lead non-violently. 

Communities have been and continue to be subjected to high levels of trauma. In response, there will be subjects to help the children process and recover from their trauma. Instead of international NGOs arriving in the Congo with experts who then leave shortly thereafter, this will provide local, permanent solutions to address local problems.  

The $375,000 budget needed to build the Congo Peace School will ensure that the street children have the opportunity to change not only their futures but also the futures of their communities, neighboring communities and communities beyond – the world in which all of us live. 

Join Us to Pass It Forward and honor Dillon’s legacy and the vision to educate children. #passitforward #worldsoccerday #congopeaceschool #dillonslist

Take the Challenge

Help us meet the challenge. We believe the power of many can make great things happen.

Take the challenge by... 

• Making a quick video doing something creative with a soccer ball or sharing your personal message

       Challenge your friends to #PassItForward - Make sure to shoutout Worldsoccerday2016.net

• Share the video on your social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) 

       Tag @dillonslist and use hashtags #WorldSoccerDay2016 #PassItForward

       Or email your video to us at dillonslist1@gmail.com 

• Donate! Any amount is welcome. Challenge your friends and help these children get an education  

We want you to add your own creative ideas and #passitforward, #worldsoccerday2016. We can build this school with your support and your actions to spread the word.

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About World Soccer Day

Vision

Humanitarians supporting education, and bringing together the soccer world and other compassionate souls who extend support and hope to the children of the DRC.

Motto

"Pass It Forward"

If you are reading this, you either love soccer and/or want to take this opportunity to make a difference. Thank you!

It started after the death of an amazing young man, Dillon Henry. Dillon loved life and had compassion rarely found in a 17 year old. His family started a foundation based on his aspirations and dreams (dillonslist.org) Dillon had just begun supporting a project in Darfur that was creating water wells to protect the women from rape when they left the refugee camps…so it was only natural that we pressed on as he would have participated in the Dillon Henry Clinic serving 143,000 women, the Chambucha Rape and Crisis Center, the Dillon Henry Youth Centers, the Home for Pregnant Teens and other projects for children in conflicted areas of Africa.

One of Dillon’s passions was soccer, having played the game from the time he was 6 and throughout the rest of his life. In 2014, seven years after Dillon was tragically killed in a car crash, his friends approached us to host a soccer tournament, Copa de Dillon, in honor of his birthday, September 24th. The event was a success and we raised money for our college scholarship program. In 2015 our event was repeated but with a wonderful addition, the DR Congo soccer tournament.

In our work in the Congo, we became connected with Amani, a selfless man who has a gift for helping his community. In 2015 Amani put on a soccer tournament in Mumosho that was incredible. The entire village of over 3,000 came to watch and marched to banners, slogans and Dillon’s beaming face from t-shirts and hats. 

Now, we are creating World Soccer Day to bring all these elements together. We will have tournaments in 2016 to honor Dillon and we will give you all an opportunity to join in on our powerful message. 

Amani has a dream to build a school and we want to help him.

Pass it forward to all your friends. Challenge them to pass the ball, kick the ball, do tricks with the ball or score a goal and upload their video for us. Be funny, be brave, be clever, be talented but keep passing this forward until we create a “world of harmony in diversity”. Along with the challenge we welcome your help through donations of any amount. This is a worldwide event so pass this forward to people you know who will join in. PEACE

“Through oceans, through mountains, I am a soldier of love and not a thing in the world can stop me” -Dillon Henry

• Dillon Henry Foundation (Dillonslist.org)
• Amani Mataboro Tom