The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Football For A Better Life (FFABL), the 10-leg nationwide grassroots football development and talent identification program sponsored by Pru Life UK, will partner with Gawad Kalinga in the culminating leg of the series with the Gawad Kalinga Cup slated on December 3 at the ULTRA Football Field in Pasig City.
Different GK communities are expected to field teams and participants in the football festival and free football clinic.
The holding of the event was announced by series organizer Albert Almendralejo, president of Spears Activation and PR Co. at the recent Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum, where he guested together with Pru Life UK EVP and CFO Lee Longa, Kevin Goco of Gawad Kalinga, Azkals player Misagh Bahadoran, and Pru Life UK Football Ambassador and TV host Graham Caygill.
“For the football clinic alone, we expect 300 kids from the different GK communities that will participate and more in the Gawad Kalinga Cup that will feature different age-group competitions. The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) has recognized the FFABL as a true grassroots sports and has extended its support by allowing us to use its facilities at ULTRA,” said Almendralejo.
For his part, Longa shared that sports and education are the pillars of Pru Life UK corporate social responsibility (CSR) program.
“We are definitely happy with the response we received from the different regions where we held our events, and we have already surpassed last year’s number with still the NCR leg remaining. We are already looking forward to our third year of the series next year,” he added.
Longa said that for this final leg, Pru Life UK will be introducing its educational component – a financial literacy campaign among the kids anchored on the existing module of Earn-Save- Spend-Donate.
“This is specifically for the kids, as we use educational cartoon materials. In fact, this program has been introduced already in 100 schools all over the country,” he noted.
Goco, meanwhile, welcomed the continuous partnership between the FFABL and Gawad Kalinga, which has chosen football as its sports component in the different GK communities.