With this knowledge and experience, this young man and woman have landed jobs in a growing sector.
“I had to drop out of secondary school because my aunt, my guardian, could not afford to educate me,” began Joseph Kinyanjui. “I hoped one day I would operate a big machine.” This 22-year-old graduate of the Sport for Kenyan Youth Employment initiative addressed an audience of project partners and construction firms, describing his initial idleness and current success.
When I was growing up a resettled refugee in New Hampshire—having emigrated from Vietnam—life wasn’t always easy, things didn’t always make sense, and ends didn’t always meet. I didn’t have much, but I always had soccer.
While my linguistic skills are quite limited, there is one language that has allowed me to communicate across Sub-Saharan Africa: soccer. I can’t say I speak all the dialects, but I am more or less fluent in Premier League, proficient in Champions League, and speak enough La Liga and PSL to get by.