Their Beautiful Game is an Australian based not for profit which collects and donates football equipment to give players in areas of hardship and poverty.

The organisation started in 2009, when founder Dave Oswell, went to do volunteer work in Ghana as a teacher at a primary school and help a third division men's team in Accra.

Before he left for Ghana, Oswell and his friends collected boots, balls, strips to take over but whilst living with a local family, he was confronted by severe poverty.

"It was something which obviously extended into football," he said. 

"Despite being considered professionals, none of the players had their own boots, the balls were held together with tape, and the pitches were made of sand, dust and rocks."

Open sewers marked the sidelines but football was a key part of life despite the lack of resources.

Oswell donated the equipment he had brought over but decided more could be done to help.

Since then, the organisation has expanded to work in 21 countries around the world including South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and marginalised groups in Australia.

They also provide equipment to Children’s Home of Hope, an orphanage in Asebu, three hours west of Accra. The orphanage is run by local volunteers and provides a safe place for children, giving them basic schooling, a place to sleep and football each afternoon.

"We try to make sure that each student has their own ball, shin pads and training kit, as well as providing the orphanage with training equipment," Oswell said.

Their Beautiful Game also works with Future Leaders, set up by Ghanian local Billa Mahmud however, he didn’t have much money so opened his school under a mango tree. They play football after school and more street children saw this and wanted to join the school, which meant Billa had to find a bigger mango tree. 

Billa has taught hundreds of kids who have gone to high school and some to university.

Future Leaders has fives teams, two of which are women’s teams. In 2015, Their Beautiful Game took one of the girl's teams to train at the national stadium, it was the first time any of the girls had played on grass.

Fast forward to the last 18 months, they’ve been working closely with marginalised women’s football groups in Australia and provided the first-ever National Indigenous Women’s team with kits, tracksuits, boots and balls. 

 

"The team couldn’t get any funding from the Australian FA so approached us," Oswell said.  

"We made sure they had everything they needed and looked and felt like proper footballers," he added.

W-league and Matildas players including Amy Harrison and Ellie Carpenter have got in on the action and donated their boots.

Just recently, they achieved a monumental feat of delivering balls and boots to the women of Al Sham, Pakistan which is near the border of Afghanistan, China and Tajikistan.

Looking to the future, Their Beautiful Game is hoping to continue expanding their work.

"In terms of future ambitions, I’d just like to see us continue to expand our work across the globe - working with more footballers who need a hand," Oswell said.

"For this to happen we need to continue to attract support for our projects and develop more partnerships with football clubs and corporate sponsors here in Australia.

"We’ve made a good start...but there’s a lot more work to do," he said.