Student Donates Nearly 500 Pieces Of Soccer Equipment To Uganda

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA – A high school student from Manhattan Beach is sharing his passion for soccer with underprivileged orphans in Uganda, after witnessing poverty in Brazil as a child. Mateus Edwards, a junior at Chadwick School in Palos Verdes and captain of the soccer team, delivered nearly 500 pieces of soccer equipment to an orphanage in Uganda, the Beach Reporter reports.

Edwards was raised in Brazil, moved to Manhattan Beach until age five and attended Pacific Elementary School. He then returned to Brazil where he attended 5th through 7th grade before returning to Manhattan Beach.

“When you see poverty, your life changes,” his mother Juliana Edwards, a native of Brazil, told The Beach Reporter. “Just seeing the kids playing soccer with no shoes on dirt fields, it was something that touched him.”

Edwards says in Brazil, "you see soccer everywhere." Children are playing in the street with bare feet and paper balls, there's beach soccer with goals set up, and it's part of the culture, he told The Beach Reporter.

“Here in the U.S., I just wanted to make a difference after seeing all that,” he said.

The items he collected to donate came from four Manhattan Beach grade schools and at Chadwick Schools, and included lightly used or new cleats, soccer balls, shirts, shorts and shin guards, according to The Beach Reporter.

Read more at The Beach Reporter. Image via Shutterstock