At the Five Points MARTA station in downtown Atlanta, they decided to build a soccer field for the local community to use and play in. The main idea towards building the soccer field was so that kids from lower income neighborhoods could have the chance to play soccer as most soccer fields as parks cannot be made in Atlanta without major taxpayer initiative.
At the Five Points station, they decided to create a league which was free for kids, along with an adult league which requires a fee. The league, which is funded by Atlanta United FC, uses volunteers and strives to create a place where young kids can go and live a normal life for a few hours of their day, away from the hardships they deal with back at home.
When we went as a class to the field, there was an interesting scenario in which kids from Ivory Coast and Niger came to play along with the kids from nearby neighborhoods in Atlanta. The event organizer, Eric, told us that sport is a way to unite people despite the differences they may have whether it be language, culture, religion and so on. He was right because the kids were having a great time playing soccer with each other despite not knowing who they even were just a few days ago. I believe if we could find ways, like sport, to unite people, we would create a much more peaceful world in which we would ameliorate our ways of peacemaking.
