Since 2020, VfB Stuttgart have been cooperating with NABU Naturschutzbund Deutschland e.V., which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, and with NABU International Naturschutzstiftung, now in its 15th year. As part of an anniversary cooperation, VfB and NABU are working together on special projects and measures for nature and environmental protection, which are supported in particular by VfB’s ‘Brustring der Herzen’ foundation. This includes another visit to Kenya in April 2024, with which VfB also supported the Bundesliga’s internationalisation measures in the East African country.
A delegation from Cannstatt travelled to Kenya to do sports development work in cooperation with the charity organisation ‘Kickoff to Hope’ in Nairobi, as well as helping the crane conservationists from Cranes Conservation Volunteers (CCV) at Lake Ol’Bolossat to implement their concept of sport and nature conservation. The third Family Fun Day took place, with the Kenyan football legend and initiator of ‘Kickoff to Hope’, Musa Otieno, once again taking part. Andrew Oloo, an advisor for the ‘Sports4Development’ approach designed specifically for developing countries by GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit), and two coaches from the VfB Football School, Manuel Bierig and Luca Finkbeiner, led a training session for a total of 24 children from a ‘Kickoff to Hope’ U17 team on an artificial pitch provided by the government. There was also a lively exchange with ten coaches from the charity project at Lake Ol’Bolossat. CCV took the opportunity to familiarise the participants with nature conservation and crane protection in particular. A nature excursion to the lake was also organised to explain the need for wetland protection. Before and after the training session, VfB donated meals and drinks for 60 children.
The day after the training session, the delegation visited Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum in the west of the capital Nairobi. There, the visitors learned about the KESA project and were able to gain an impression of the living conditions of the slum dwellers during a guided tour of the site. Afterwards, they played a football match together with children from the settlement.
The second day of the trip was rounded off with a trip to the German school in Nairobi, where a meeting was held with Annette Pfirrmann (German Embassy) and the school representatives Christian Vorein and Jörg Isenbeck. The coaches from the VfB Football School then organised a training session with 140 pupils from the German school and the KESA project.