Timbers Collaborate with African Road to Build Soccer Field in Rwanda

January 11, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Portland Timbers News Release

KIGALI, Rwanda – In collaboration with Portland-based nonprofit African Road, the Portland Timbers expanded their Fields For All partnership globally in 2020, awarding $50,000 in funding to Togetherness Youth Cooperative to build its first international field in Kigali, Rwanda. The funding supported the construction of a Phase I FIFA junior regulation-sized, graded soccer field with 400 stadium seats.

The team’s mascot, Timber Joey, and Vice President of Community and Social Impact, Dr. Robin Beavers, represented the club at the field dedication ceremony in Rwanda on Sunday, Jan. 7. Previously announced in 2020, the dedication ceremony was postponed due to the pandemic.

“Similar to our Stand Together mission, the Togetherness Cooperative, as well as the entire country of Rwanda, uses sports to uplift their community giving youth and their families hope for its future,” shared Dr. Beavers. “Having the opportunity to see the vision of Pastor Steven Turikunkiko, founder of Togetherness, come to life along with hundreds of people – come together in the name of soccer for the betterment of their community inspires me even more – to continue to do the work under the Stand Together platform to uplift our communities at home in Portland! Timber Joey and I are both truly humbled by this experience and honored to be able to come out and dedicate the field on behalf of the club and those who helped raise and provide funding for this project.”

Togetherness Youth Cooperative was created after a group of orphaned survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide gathered on borrowed, unused land to spend their time playing soccer in the aftermath. In 2011, African Road purchased land for Togetherness to transform into resources for the community including farming, a bakery, a pre-school, buildings for use, and at the core, a football pitch, hand dug by the youth themselves.

“The power of the Portland Timbers Stand Together investment in a special soccer pitch in Rwanda is bringing hope and strength to hundreds of young people in rural Rwanda,” African Road Executive Director and Cofounder Kelly Bean said. “African Road and Portland Timbers, Stand Together share the belief that community-led action has the best outcomes. African Road is committed to equipping people to lift up themselves and others. Thank you Portland Timbers for your part in a growing story of lasting change.”

Fields For All is a…