Story of Faisal Cup
The Faisal Cup was started by Dignity for Children and is a football and netball tournament to act as a voice of freedom and opportunity for underprivileged children.
The Faisal Cup was birthed out of tragedy. On a sunny Saturday afternoon in April 2006, just as the excitement surrounding the World Cup began to build, one of Dignity’s students, Faisal, drowned while trying to fetch an old football he saw floating in the Gombak river. Faisal never had an opportunity to play football, his squatter home lacked any safe area to play and his unemployed parents could never afford to buy him a ball, let alone send him for training. Faisal gave up his life just for a chance to play for a RM20 ball.
Dignity wholeheartedly believe that a child’s life is worth a lot more than an old ball. Thus the Faisal Cup was initiated, to ensure that children from underprivileged backgrounds had an equal opportunity to play in a safe environment. To ensure that never again would a child lose their life over something that seems so small to us, but is so important to them.
For the past 10 years, Dignity for Children has provided education for underprivileged children. When asked about his motivation for organizing the tournament each year Rev Elisha Satvinder, the chairman of Dignity for Children Foundation explains, “The Faisal Cup has always been for the children. It is about giving them the opportunity to play and meet others like themselves. We give them the place as well as the dignity.”
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