'Home And Away' by Dave Bidini

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When you think of the homeless, scenes of street-dwelling vagabonds pushing shopping carts full of aluminum cans, sleeping on benches with newspapers for blankets or holding their hands out for donations normally come to mind. You certainly wouldn't expect to see them in an airport on their way to Australia to take part in a worldwide soccer tournament. Yet, this is exactly what Canadian writer Dave Bidini chronicles in his book, Home And Away.

It may come as quite a shock that there is an organization called the Homeless World Cup (HWC) which annually brings together Street Soccer teams from around the world to compete against one another, just like the World Cup. How did it come about? For years, experts have hailed the rehabilitative nature of sports. With this in mind, HWC founders Mel Young and Harald Schmied took to the streets to raise awareness about homelessness. Armed with bags of soccer balls, they coaxed the dispossessed to play in friendly games. When Young and Schmied began noticing a remarkable change in these recovering addicts, former criminals and poverty-stricken individuals, they launched a program to help give these men and women a new lease on life.

What was originally intended to be a two nation match in 2003, ended up including 18 countries. It's continued to expand ever since, especially with the help of sponsors like Nike and UEFA, not to mention celebrity testimonials from the likes of Ringo Starr and Desmond Tutu.

In this account, Bidini travels with Team Canada to the 2008 Homeless World Cup, interacting with his fellow countrymen and other teams as they discuss their struggles, disappointments and frustrations in the day-to-day fight to survive. We meet people from all walks of life and corners of the globe, hearing their life stories and their cultural/ geographical limitations, but ultimately, the focus is on the endearing Canadian players - former pro athlete and addict, Billy; a brave and optimistic teenager, Krystal; and Moroccan immigrant, Juventus, who does not like to talk about his past. You can’t help but cheer them on during games, admire their tenacity when the odds are stacked against them and be devastated by their shortcomings. Despite their skills and persistence, the road to the finals is anything but smooth for them.

Although the pitch is smaller, the players fewer and the game shorter, the goal (no pun intended) is still the same - kick the ball to win. Since no one has anything to lose, they give all they have, making the battle for the title fierce. Here though, victory is not necessarily measured by medals awarded or points accumulated. For participants, it's mostly about gaining a life-changing experience, feeling good about themselves and being part of a team. No matter what happens after the tournament is over and the players return home, no one can take away from these individuals that they played with honor, determination and great spirit.

The stigma associated with homelessness might keep some from sympathizing with the players or giving this event a second thought - after all, if so much effort can go into arranging a Homeless World Cup and corralling people that normally can’t be pinned down, why not use the funding to help them get back on their feet, instead of releasing them back into the "wild" so to speak? Bidini doesn't offer commentary on this. In fact, his writing style is very laid back and nonjudgmental - he simply relays the players' stories and allows the audience to come to its own conclusions. With few words, he manages to shatter homeless stereotypes of laziness, drug addiction and the like, and successfully captures everything this simple game represents to the less fortunate. Bidini’s unpretentious approach also helps readers perceive the dispossessed in a new light, while stressing the importance of community, and how it usually leads these social outcasts on the path to recovery and rebirth.

Honest, humbling and humanizing, Home And Away touches the soul in ways most modern accounts fail to do.