A team of four Melbourne primary school students has finished third in a prestigious international community problem solving competition with their project to assist players in the Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup.

The year six students from Melbourne Grammar’s coeducational primary school, Grimwade House, took out third place at the finals held last weekend in Michigan, USA, with their presentation on homelessness, including welcome kits which they will supply to around 500 players from around the world arriving in Melbourne for the Homeless World Cup on December 1-7.

The welcome kits will …

In 2006, having sent the street socceroos to represent Australia in Edinburgh in 2005, and Capetown in 2006, General Manager Steven Persson and coach George Halkias at The Big Issue put together a bid to host the 2008 Homeless World Cup. With the cooperation of key agencies including City of Melbourne, Victoria Police, the Victorian State Government and Victorian Major Events; the bid was successful and The Big Issue was officially handed the responsibility for …

Adelaide street soccer coordinator, James Maiden has just returned from two weeks in Zimbabwe working with the Zimbabwean Street Soccer Project. He has started filming a documentary on them and their journey to the Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup. The trip revolved around team selections at a national tournament held in Hatcliffe where the program takes place.

“It was amazing; six teams were competing in the concrete car park of the one shops in the area where Tawanda, the coordinator lives. Life …

With the imminent appointment of a coach and coordinator and having already nailed down a regular training time and venue, the Sydney Street Socceroos Program is nearly up and running. In the meantime several Big Issue vendors who are waiting with anticipation for the program to start, joined in a fun day of soccer with employees from Zurich and their community partners United Way.

Owing to the heavy Sydney rain the game was taken indoors where plenty of …