The Unity of Faiths Foundation football club seeks Pope's blessing

(Vatican Radio) Among the many thousands of pilgrims and visitors at Pope Francis’ general audience on Wednesday was a group of young students from The Unity of Faiths Foundation football club, or TUFF FC as it’s known.

Started in London as a way  of bringing together people of many different religious, ethnic and social backgrounds, the foundation began by organizing music festivals with the support of local community leaders. Following on from those successful events, the foundation developed education programmes for schools and then set up the football team as a way of offering kids from underprivileged backgrounds an alternative to the gang culture that many  of them are lured into.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama have already endorsed  the project and, knowing the Pope’s passion for football, the group came to the Vatican this week to seek his blessing too.

Accompanying the kids was one of The Unity of Faiths co-founders, Dr Shamender Talwar, together with his daughter Kareena, a youth ambassador, and Ben Corbyn, in charge of sports development.

They talked to Philippa Hitchen about the way the organisation has grown and how it’s also now keeping kids away from the lure of online radicalization by extremist groups…

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