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Who knows whom he would have become if he haven’t met the coach, social program’s “Basketball Power” coordinator Arminas Vareika. Edvardas’ open and honest story touches our hearts and makes us think: what are we prepared to do for such young people like him?

Lives in a closed circle

According to A. Vareika, “Basketball Power” is the Kazickas Family Foundation’s initiative. Peter Kazickas borowed an idea from similar program in Zimbabwe that aims to engage children and youth living in social isolation in basketball lessons and teach them life skills through it. The “Capital Basketball School” provides program with the coaches. After completing special training, coaches travel to various small towns once a week to provide basketball and life skills lessons free of charge. “We're in our third season already. First one was just few months long. The goal was just to open basketball court. However, we’ve noticed that we can’t just leave children and have to continue the project. We connected with the children, they started asking when we were coming back. Those children live in a closed circle – they inherit their parents life style of drinking, being unable to hold a job and believe that any other way to lead your life is impossible. We organize field trips for children and initiate various social activities. We try to show many new possibilities around them, the way to get out of their environment, because those children tend to stay in the villages where they grew up. Program exceeded our expectations – so many children joined,” shared Arminas.

In search for affection on the streets

One of A. Vareika students – Edvardas – has been in a foster care since five years old. His last stop – Lentvaris foster home. Even though today he is training for a career as a chef in Vilnius, quite often he goes back to Lentvaris foster home. According to Edvardas “that’s my family.” “ My father passed away, my mother is alive, but I don’t keep in touch with her. Up until I was 10 years old, she used to visit sometimes, but she disappeareed afterwards. She just surfaced recently, but I refused to meet with her. When I was 11, a family from Luxembourg wanted to adopt me, but I refused and then signeda document that I don’t want to be adopted. I got scared that I’d be separated from my sister and my brother. I’ve heard that someone adopted two sisters, but the third one was still little, was staying at different place and she was left behind. My sister at that time was still little and at different home. Other time someone wanted to adopt just me, then again – just me and my brother, but they didn’t want our sister. I was really attached to her. At home I used to take care of her, because our mother would leave us alone and go out to drink all day long. I also took care of my brother. I didn’t have a childhood. Now my sister is 14, brother – 16. When she was at different location, I constantly kept going to visit her. I wanted her to know me, because she was just a baby when we were taken away. One summer she broke her leg, so I carried her everywhere,” shared 18 year old Edvardas. Young man did not complain about the conditions at foster home, he had all the necessary things, got along with the friends, however one thing missing was adult’s attention and affection. “It is natural – there were many of us and just one care taker. Whatever I was missing I found on the streets. Since 14, I was an active participant of street fights. I was sent to school’s child welfare commission every month. I was a bad child. One day principal asked me why I do what I do. I told her I liked it, it keeps me busy. I feel acknowledged on the streets, respected. I was seeking situations where I would earn respect, where others would be afraid of me. Little I knew that it wasn’t true respect, only the fair to be beaten up. Today half of those friends are drunks, others are well known by police, however my current friends respect me as a human,” Edvardas was pouring his heart out.

Even though he loves to cook, Edvardas wants to join military

After seeing a poster inviting to free basketball practices, Edvardas decided to give it a shot. “I remember my first practice. There were only younger children from Day center. I didn’t like it, but still came back to the second practice. Third time those little kids started saying hello to me. I thought I’d stay, maybe I’ll change the way I think. At the beginning I didn’t trust Arminas, but I listened to what he was saying. We always chatted after the practice. Today Arminas is my friend, my brother. He will always give you an advise. I started changing my perspective on life, started looking at people differently. For the first time I started to understand that we all are equal, doesn’t matter if you are handicapped, struggle with school work or you’re not so good at basketball. It doesn’t matter that children attending basketball practices are much younger, they are my family. Of course, we run into all sorts of issues, but we deal with them. Once we had a match with visiting team. After the game they shared what they study, what their goals are. It clicked then, that the most important thing is education. One players suggestion stuck in my head – try all kinds of different activities, find the one you love and go from there,” explained Edvardas. Currently he is learning chef’s trade, because he liked to cook since he was little.

“When I cook, I relax, don’t think about anything else, even put my phone further away, so I wouldn’t get distracted. My friends support my decision, even few of previous friends expressed interest into coming to this trade school after they gradutae school. I am so glad I had influence on them. I invited them to basketball practices – now they have an activity, don’t spend their days on the streets. First, I invited few guys, they invited few more and now we have fifteen. I was nervous, how will I make sure we all get along, we all are so different,” laughed Edvardas.

After graduating Edvardas plans to join the military, maybe even stay there, because he can’t picture himself doing office work. During his spare time, he’d love to be a “Basketball Power” coach.

Decided to become good role model for others

“One day Arminas and I visited a Day center. Younger children, attending the center, listened to every word we were saying. It crossed my mind at that moment that I want to be a good role model for others, not the bad one, just like I am a role model to my sister and my brother. I show them that there is no need to spend time on the streets, there are so many other activities. I brought my sister to the practice, when she complained there was nothing to do. She’s not into basketball, but she started attending track and field practices. My brother is into boxing and has been taking classes for few years already. He doesn’t get into street fights, wants to be a good role model as well. I like to help. Once I visited the youngest family – first through fifth graders. Children launched on me. One boy struggled with history at school. I spent three hours explaining it to him. He’s in fifth grade now and gets straight A’s in history class. It feels good. Hope tiny part of his success was because of my help,” wondered young man.

Coach becomes the only male role model

According to A. Vareika, because basketball is so popular, coach becomes a role model to the children. Quite often he is the only male role model in their lives. Usually foster homes’ employees are women. Children don't have a role model because of their fathers' alcohol abuse. That's where the closed circle starts – their children start drinking, then they have children and those children will be drinking as well. And then a young man who doesn’t drink, speaks intelligently, provides opportunity to leave the village and see what’s beyond it steps into their lives. “I am from a small town myself. We also had a group of priests who played soccer with us when I was younger. They offered us a chance to go on field trips, see what else is out there. It had a huge influence on us. It helped to realize that those opportunities are not that far away. When you encourage children, listen to what they have to say, give your phone number, they start calling you, asking for advise. Once I received a phone call from a child contemplating suicide. Usually, all they need is attention and interaction, you need to make that child feel important. Quite often they express that nobody cares about them. Soon there will be our teams’ tournament in Vilnius. We’ll get all the children in one place, they will not only play basketball but will get an opportunity to visit the Presidential Palace, the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, various educational institutions, will be introduced to new technologies. We want them to see that the world goes way beyond their backyard. Most of small town children believe that they can be teachers, firemen, police men, only because that’s what they see around. They don’t have an opportunity to touch more global world. We try to provide them hope. That’s the reason this project continues. It’s impossible to leave, once you get involved,” shared the coach.

Children need attention more than money

According to the coach, program accepts all the children whom no one else needs in the society. Because of that, job is not easy. Youngsters are full of aggression, defiance. If you make it, you become an authority to them, they accept you. They test you, as asking – why are you here, you won’t change us. They’ve been hurt so much, that they build walls around themselves. It shows through aggression and reaction to automatically reject. They don’t want to get too close to you so they don’t get hurt later. There are not bad children, just bad situations that created who they are. It’s a problem that they don’t have good role models they could follow, and the society's view is very negative – people treat them as tiny useless parts of Lithuania,” coach shared his concerns. A. Vareika wishes that society would become more active, more involved and it’s empathy towards the youth from the outskirts of society wouldn’t stop with a donation of few euros during the fundraisings. It’s not just a check mark on your good deed list. What these children need the most is our attention and kindness.