Nicolette Iribarne isn’t waiting for graduation to make her mark on the world. As the force behind her own humanitarian organization, Futbol for Refugees, the work of the UCSB freshman has already reached out to less fortunate children all over the globe.

“There’s this sense of community when you play soccer,” she said. “The sport isn’t as big in the U.S. as it is eslewhere, but the camaraderie can be contagious, no matter where you come from.”

Iribarne’s own soccer experience began at an early age. Her father, raised in the futbol-conscious culture of Argentina, started her in the sport at the age of 5. Her growing knowledge and skill in the sport coupled with a globetrotting childhood resulted in a unique perspective on human relations.

“Everybody plays soccer,” she said of the kids on her travels through South America, Europe and Southeast Asia. “It’s not just a game there; it’s more a way of life.”

She’s played on the streets in Mexico, in an alley in Brazil and in a field in Thailand.
“I speak not a single word of Thai, and I could play with the kids in Thailand perfectly fine,” she said.

And so it was natural for her continue what she had been doing growing up, but to focus on children who really needed the kind of joy the sport could bring. By her junior year in high school in Orange County, Iribarne had formed a nonprofit, with the help of friends and family, with the goal of sending soccer balls to kids all over the world who’ve been the victims of hate and poverty.

“A lot of the kids that I’m sending soccer balls to are deprived of the basic necessities they need to live,” said Iribarne. “They live in houses with dirt floors, they don’t have any running water.”

To date she’s shipped about 600 balls to countries as far as Azerbaijan, Columbia, Mexico, Iraq and Peru, and to places as close as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck the city.
And they’re not just ordinary soccer balls either: many, if not all, are decorated by volunteers and fellow soccer lovers with messages of hope and friendship to inspire the recipients, many of whom have lost just about everything.

“But they can still find an outlet in soccer, and have a fun time and try to escape all that,” she said.

These days Iribarne isn’t as big a soccer player as she used to be back in Mission Viejo. School’s taken up much of her time. But she’d like to keep up the work she started in high school: spreading the word, asking for donations, getting the balls together, and ultimately making it possible for the world’s least fortunate children and teens to enjoy the world’s most-loved sport.

This summer she will be traveling through South America with Ruta Inka, a cultural organization that has asked her to bring soccer balls to distribute while visiting towns and villages there, and she says kids in Azerbaijan are eager for more balls. There are always children in the world that could use a soccer ball, and Iribarne’s determined to give them one.

Want to help?

Futbol for Refugees could always use balls, pumps, needles or money. People who want to donate should make arrangements with Nicolette Iribarne at futbol4refugees@hotmail.com.

Photo by Sonia Fernandez

Caption: Nicolette Iribarne, a freshman at UCSB, started Futbol for Refugees while she was in high school.