WE ARE
THE
FLYING
STARS
AMPUTEE FOOTBALL
ORGANIZATION
Freetown, Sierra Leone
FEATURED
Check out Bornor Karbor (former team captain) featured in this Adidas commercial “Impossible is Nothing: Shoko Ota“. His infamous kick was shot during the making of 'The Flying Stars' feature documentary and shot by talented cinematographer Colin Akoon. Bornor and the team are excited to be included in this inspiring commercial and are rooting for 2x medal winning Paralympian Shoko Ota at the upcoming Paralympic Games!
BACKGROUND
Sierra Leone’s civil war decimated the country and destroyed much of its infrastructure. This ten-year tragedy displaced millions, killed hundreds of thousands and left tens of thousands disabled from brutal amputations. Since its end, we’ve reached out to our relatives and our communities to mobilize amputees and non-amputees and form the Salone Flying Stars Amputee Football Organization. an official football club focused on helping victims of the war progress past that dark part of our history. Since its conception, the Salone Flying Stars Amputee Football Organization has not only become officially affiliated with the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), The Ministry of Sport and The Ministry of Social Welfare Gender & Children’s Affairs but has also amassed many members (both amputees and non-amputees) and in doing so been officially recognized as a community base organization.
Through football, we have found a way to not only play competitively throughout Sierra Leone and Africa but to build a community of like-minded souls who find hope and strength in this game.
The Flying Stars were created
to divert our minds from frustration and towards
PROGRESS.
OUR MISSION
The Salone Flying Stars Amputee Football Organization was first and foremost formed for amputees who were victimized during the brutal eleven-year rebel war in Sierra Leone and it has always been our goal to support those individuals in bettering their quality of life. By creating jobs for those living with amputations and ensuring them means by which to improve themselves such as access to skill training, formal education and various agricultural activities The Flying Stars’ have continued to pursue that goal of promoting and developing the lives of amputees.
“As we were provoked, marginalized, insulted with all kinds of names, we formed this club to bring us together, as one family to share our feelings, especially to support our mental strength in our special living conditions and social recovery.”
The Flying Stars Amputee Football Organization seeks to take part in the various development programs and business empowerment processes. To date we have run agriculture development and sewing programs with our teams. Ultimately, we want to see amputees viewed as priority choices for opportunities regarding education, skills training, medication and jobs in both government and non-government sectors. Furthermore, we would like to establish a recreational center or workshop where we can make things for ourselves such as crutches, rubber chubs prostheses. These are the things that we use on a daily basis to walk, play ball and work. Ease of access to these items helps to improve our overall quality of life.
Your donations will go towards achieving these goals and improving the lives of amputees and their families.
INITIATIVES
Limited Edition Print Campaign
Multi-award-winning Photographer Todd Anthony recently went to Sierra Leone and photographed the Salone Flying Stars team. He launched this GoFundMe campaign to provide all Flying Stars players across Sierra Leone new sets of crutches and spare ferrules(hard rubber foot at the bottom of the crutches), and hopefully some additional funding in order for them to organise transport between cities for them to play competitive matches between the various teams. We will purchase the crutches in the UK and be shipped to Sierra Leone.
Any donation will be very welcome, but anyone donating £150 or more will receive a signed limited edition print from the series, shipped anywhere in the world. Please check out the GoFundMe for more details!
Check out the feature about the photographs by Creative Boom!
TEAMS
The Salone Flying Stars Amputee Football Organization has
6 single-leg amputee football teams across Sierra Leone.
PLAYER PROFILES
Press
The Flying Stars
Feature Length Documentary Film
The Flying Stars were featured in a film that follows the lives of two of our key members Bornor Kargbo and Mohamed “Census” Jalloh.
This film was directed by Ngardy Conteh George & Allan Tong and produced by Ngardy Conteh George, Allan Tong, Katarina Soukup.
Steaming Now on KweliTV
The Impossible Team Short Documentary Film
Hummel marked the 2019 UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) with world premiering the documentary “The Impossible Team”.
The film was co-produced with the non-profit organization FANT - Football for a new tomorrow. The film supports the Sierra Leonean football team Flying Stars Amputees where all players are victims of civil war amputations. We also meet the team’s new ambassador, former pro-player Jonathan Richter – listed as one of the unluckiest footballers in the world as he got struck by lightning during a game – and afterwards had one leg amputated. The film shows how football can help bring joy, confidence and hope for a better future for the disabled in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone’s Amputee Footballers
The Team was featured in an Al Jazeera article detailing what football means to them and helping to spread awareness of amputee football.
Contact Us
Organization Executive
President Mohamed Lappia +23276735475/ 77393892
Vice President & Coordinator Mohamed Jalloh +23276378346/ 79395384
Chair Lady Kadiatu Koroma +23277514489
Secretary General Chernoh Shaw +23278774455
Office Address Sir Samuel Lewis Road, New Market, Former Amputee Camp
E-mail flyingstaramputeefootballclub@gmail.com
Site Credits:
Website created by Kai Gaspard
Videos “Salone Flying Stars Intro”:
shot, recorded and edited by Jackie Vorhauer, Ivan Clark, Sam Mesemene & Iain Kennedy (©2015 Vertical Ascent).
Graphics designed and created by Joi Lee (© Joi Lee, used with kind permission)
Stills by Salone Flying Stars (©2015 all rights reserved), Johnny Vong (© 2011 all rights reserved, used with kind permission), and Jackie Vorhauer (©2014 all rights reserved, used with kind permission)
Trailer for The Flying Stars documentary posted with kind permission Ngardy Conteh George, OYA Media Group ( ©2014 all rights reserved ).
Special thanks to: Ngardy Conteh George & Iain Kennedy