blog action day: on footy and poverty

The general concensus seems to be that 2008 hasn’t been the glittering and successful rugby league centenary year we might have hoped for.  Not for any reasons that have to do with playing the game itself … but just because any use of the word ‘footy’ in the media or in public seemed to be followed by the words ‘sex scandal’, ‘urine’, ‘cage-fighting’, ‘shooting’ ‘controversy’ or ‘international fugitive’.

At least it was representative of league’s past, right?  You have to admit that league is fantastic at creating dramaz.

But it does mean that a lot of other league news that might have grabbed the headlines has been shunted off to the corner along with soccer and Australian hip-hop to be ignored.  Actual Good Things are happening off the paddock, and if you’re not a big Josh Massoud fan or a regular at Nathan Hindmarsh’s blog, you might have missed em.

Just this month, Justin Poore, Nathan Hindmarsh, Todd Carney, Jarrad Hickey, Todd Payten and Jared Warea-Hargreaves are all travelling Rwanda as part of an NRL group on a trip organised by ex-Raider Paul Osborne.

And in a country where genocide has left so many – women and children in particular - without homes and without families, the boys are working to build facilities as part of the Village of Hope.  It’s an organisation providing for widows and for orphaned children who, without this kind of help, would likely be homeless and living in abject poverty.

We respect them all for giving what they are capable of giving to ease the burden of poverty. And we don’t just mean money – even though we all know that’s vitally important.

Some of the beauty for me in seeing young Aussie men making this trip is in the learning that there is something that a person as an individual can give – like time, or labour, or friendship, as well as possessions or donations – that can ease someone else’s lack.  It’s a worthwhile reminder of how powerful we all are as individuals, and how connected.

These awesome pics are all by Gregg Porteous via www.news.com.au – Head here to see the whole series.
 

Oh Errol is proud to be a part of Blog Action Day 2008.