Make a difference
The Story…so far
Helen Baker’s love of football began early in her childhood. Growing up watching her dad coach and her brothers play, she recalls; “there weren’t too many women’s teams around then”. Helen is also and experienced financial adviser, speaker and author. With these key attributes, Helen seized an opportunity to share her passion for the sport, which she says, “builds friendship, fitness, fun, learning and creates opportunities”, along with her other passion, empowering women. So, with her extensive network in the worlds of business and football, she set about collecting 100 pairs of football boots for the women in Vanuatu, Helen says, “we are blessed with so much, to bless others, see their joy, experience their fun and friendships is truly something wonderful.
What transpired was a tremendous outpouring of generosity from football clubs all over Brisbane. Donations of jerseys, shorts, shin guards, boots, balls, pumps, bags, training goals, training bibs and even two sets of full-sized field goals, culminating in a shipment of 87 boxes weighing 694kgs (4.6 cubic metres). With the assistance of David Gould, CEO of South Efate Football Club, this shipment arrived in Vanuatu in September.
Helen travelled to Vanuatu and met with members from the Vanuatu Football body and was involved with the gear distribution. From here the goal is to empower the women of Vanuatu to manage their teams, equipment and competitions into the future, with the greater impact to strengthen the quality of Vanuatu’s National Women’s Team.
How you can support the dream…
Every little bit goes a long way for these girls and gets them a step further in chasing their dreams. If you want to do something more focused with your money, these tasks will make a huge difference to each girl you help.
For as little as $3 you can buy passage to and from training for one girl
Many of the girls live long distances from both school and football, for just $130 a year you can fund board for one girl on a school campus giving her a shot at a better education and an opportunity to play high-level football
An annual registration fee of $4,400 is due to the Vanuatu Football Federation. This fee covers every competitor playing within the association’s competition
But wait… there’s more
While in Vanuatu, Helen attended the Carbine Futsal tournament, to pass on some of the donated equipment to the girls who play football, here is where she met Charles Hawka. Charles is a freelance journalist for the Daily Post and was there covering the tournament. Apart from a sports reporter, Charles is the coach of the Buluana Netball team and he asked Helen if there would be netball clubs in Australia who would be prepared to donate uniforms and shoes for the players. Of course Helen said yes, and we currently have approximately 30 boxes being packed in readiness to be shipped to Vanuatu. Once again the outpouring of generosity across the country has been a true blessing. This shipment contains 196 netballs, 131 pairs of shoes, uniforms, positional patches, kit bags, drink bottles and training equipment.
We need your help…
An approximate freight cost of $3000 is required to cover this shipment of sporting equipment, so the women of Vanuatu can benefit
Hiring of a storage facility, at approximately $175 per month, will be required to securely store all the sporting equipment
The creation of an Equipment Officer position, for a local woman, with an annual salary of $10,000. This role will primarily be to distribute gear as required and keep a register of which teams/clubs have what equipment
Click the “Article” button to read about the response from the women who received the much needed resources
