Hello! Welcome to the first Monthly Highlights with Fairplay!
Going forward this will be a much easier way for everyone to keep in touch with the latest developments from Fairplay. If you sign up on the right sidebar for the mailing list you’ll get the monthly updates and stories of success directly sent to your inbox.
So first up, the latest newsletter is for Quarter 3, for July to September. You can check that out in full here: fairplay-newsletter-july-sept-2016
For this month’s highlights at Fairplay there have been some nice developments. With the Payatas Sports Center officially opened in September, we’ve seen regular trainings begin and an increase from roughly 100 to 200 regular players now!
Having our own safe space to play is fantastic. Fairplay has really levelled up, which means we’ve solved the old problems and we now have new and better problems to solve – like training the older kids to coach and handle the younger teams as we’re playing catch up with the number of coaches for a while. 
Also in sports, Payatas FC competed in the Yellow Cab Cup for U17 Girls. Overall the girls finished 3rd and learned along the way. The girls have a lot of potential with several of our girls in the National Youth Teams or on the NYT radar. Most importantly, the relationships, social, and emotional development are really nice to be part of.
To build on this, Fairplay announced in October we will host a pilot U17 Girls League in November. We will host it at our new court. This will be a 6 team league, 5v5, played over three weeks (2 games per week) and the pilot for a larger league to develop into a Girls Dvision for the Metro Manila Futsal League.
Meanwhile at the Fairplay Center, Cycle 6 of the year has begun. We’ve settled into a routine now with 4 weeks of teaching followed by a buffer week for teacher planning, assessment, and rest.
The kids enjoyed coming back and the numbers are gradually growing again after a dip following the usual back to school enrolment. Often the start of formal school means a lot of kids re-enrol but drop out again a few months later. This is in part due to classrooms full of 60-80 kids at once, teachers being under-trained, overworked, and underpaid, and financial problems as families can’t afford to sustain the costs of school (project materials, misc. fees, uniforms, etc.). It’s one of the reasons alternatives are so sorely needed.
To that end, the Fairplay Center is now on its way to registering in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) which means we can teach kids and bring them for the exams to get Elementary and High School diplomas. It provides a formal track for the kids with us.
At the Fairplay Cafe, there are two highlights for this month. The first is we have a new Kitchen Manager: Jepoy! Jepoy graduated from Ateneo recently and comes as a fresh grad. He’s tasked to help organise the Cafe and produce the marketing materials and management so we can build on our outside catering and take on more events and jobs outside of Payatas. This means by the end of next year the Fairplay Cafe will be able to build on the 2,000 meals it makes every month for our educational and sporting programmes and turn a healthy profit to support the livelihood of more local mothers.
Secondly, we began catering to teams at tournaments as we catered for 50 other players at the Yellow Cab Cup. It’s a step we can build on and cater for more tournaments and sporting clinics. So if you’re interested in having the Fairplay Cafe cater at your event, sporting clinic, or office, check out this quick brochure for more info:
Lastly, Fairplay began the Humans of Payatas stories this month too! Check it out on our Facebook page here to see more about that: https://www.facebook.com/fairplayforallfoundation/ as well as on Twitter at @HumansOfPayatas.
The idea is like Humans of New York, a photo and a quick story of the person featured. In a big city people are dehumanised, and in Payatas that can be a greater problem as all the area is known for outside is the giant dumpsite overshadowing everything else. So what better way to finish the first highlights here than with a post from Humans of Payatas?
Rodalyn || 27 years old
“Bola-bola tong binibenta ko, hindi squidball. Masustansya to kasi gawa sa kalabasa tsaka walang preservatives. Tiyuhin ko yung nag-isip ng recipe. Para maiba naman, hindi yung pare-pareho kaming squidball ang binibenta dito sa Payatas. Nakakatulong pa ko sa iba kasi natututunan ng mga batang magustuhan ang mga gulay. Paborito na to ng bunso ko ngayon. Yung panganay ko naman ang paborito ampalaya.”
***
“I’m selling bola-bola, not squidball. This is healthy because it’s made of squash and it doesn’t have preservatives. It’s my uncle’s recipe. I don’t want to be like every other street food vendor here in Payatas that sells squidballs. Plus, I’m able to help others because more kids are becoming interested in eating vegetables. Now, my youngest child’s favorite is bola-bola. And my eldest child’s favorite is bittermelon.”
Fairplay For All Foundation 