The Have a Ball Foundation puts smiles on kids’ faces by providing sporting equipment to remote schools in outback Australia as well as raising money to support the health and well-being of indigenous children. We sat down with founder, Rohan Duncan to chat about his experiences and his goals for the future.

Q: Why did you start the Have a Ball Foundation?

I had a life changing moment when I was travelling with my family in Sri Lanka in 2011. A group of local kids who lived in a shanty town next to our hotel would come after school and play cricket on the beach each night as they were so passionate about their sport. They invited us to play one afternoon and I noticed they only had an old cricket bat, rough old tennis balls and a block of wood for stumps. We ended up buying them a couple of brand new bats and balls, as it didn’t mean much to us as it was only $4 a bat from the local market, but when we gave it to them, each one of those kids came up and said ‘thank you, thank you,’ like we had given them all a million dollars.

That event stuck in my head and when I was back in Australia, I looked at ways I could help kids in need, especially our own indigenous communities who I had previously interacted with on earlier travels. I came up with the concept of getting some sports balls out to the kids in need to keep them fit and healthy.

I approached my local principal and asked if we could organise a ‘bring a ball’ day at a local school as most kids have got balls lying around at home and they could either buy a new ball or donate a good condition secondhand ball. We had an event at the school and I delivered these donations to six communities around the Alice Springs region in Central Australia. The response was amazing.

Q: Since it was established seven years ago, how much has the Have a Ball foundation grown?

We are now a formal not for profit foundation with tax deductible gift recipients set up. We’ve just hit 50,000 balls which have been donated which have been distributed to over 100 different remote communities and around 15 overseas countries. Chem Couriers, a local trucking company is our major sponsor, so they transport trailer loads of balls from Melbourne to their main hubs around Australia such as Alice Springs, Darwin, Perth and Cairns. We then have a number of volunteers in these locations who can distribute them out to kids in remote communities. Teaming up with Rotary Club has also extended our distribution opportunities as we are able to send sports balls to their warehouse in Footscray and they are able to distribute to a whole range of overseas countries in need such as Kenya, India, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea.

Q: What projects have you been able to fund?

Earlier this year when the cyclones were going through Arnhem Land, all the communities from Arnhem Land were flown into Darwin and the army set up tents for them to stay. I was in Darwin at the time and I heard of this on the news. I called in and spoke to the evacuation coordinator and asked if I could buy some balls for the kids so I just went down to the local Kmart and bought a couple of hundred footy and soccer balls and they were just rapt with them.

We’ve also used some money to help out remote schools, from planting veggie gardens or citrus trees at the schools, installing shade sails in the playgrounds due to the extreme heat in these locations, or arranging new football goals or replacing broken basketball rings.

Q: What is the next step for Have a Ball?

I’m looking for a major sponsor to employ someone as the growth opportunities are endless. With some additional resources, proactively marketing and running more school events, there is the potential to generate around 30,000 to 40,000 balls a year. I’m currently restricted from a resourcing point of view as I have to rely on volunteers and balance working for the foundation with my full time employment.

Q: What is your full time job?

My title is the eAdmin Centre of Excellence Lead for the Catholic Education Office, so essentially I’m a team lead for an IT project where we are rolling out new administration systems for all 500 Victorian Catholic schools. I’ve also got three girls so I’m pretty busy running them around to their sporting commitments!

Q: What do you think are the major benefits of giving these kids access to sporting equipment?

There’s a whole range of downstream benefits that are hard to measure. Getting kids go to school is a big challenge out in the communities where their attendance rates are really low, so some of the teachers use these balls as rewards. But essentially the balls help the kids stay fit and healthy and encoyurage them to lead a healthy lifestyle as well as connecting with everyone around them by playing sport.

It was really touching when I delivered a bag of balls to a small school in a remote central Aust school when the teacher came out and was so thankful for the donations. She said she would put them in her office as the kids don’t get any presents at Christmas.’ She wanted to keep all the balls as a Christmas present for the kids so they all have something to take home which made me realise that we take so much for granted and how much we spoil our own kids in major cities.

Q: How can people get involved in Have a Ball?

Most of the details are on the website, but they can volunteer for events if they want to help out, otherwise donations are always needed to fund events, help out schools in need and purchase more balls. People can also contact their local school or sports club to see whether they would be interested in holding an event or have any balls to donate.

Visit Have a Ball’s website to learn more about the foundation and how you can support kids in remote communities, and watch this video to find out a little more about their story.