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— Sheryl Sandberg

Learn more about Ashoka Fellows seeking eradicate poverty worldwide.
Jürgen Griesbeck
This profile was prepared when Jürgen Griesbeck was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2007.
Jurgen’s global network brings hundreds of organizations using “streetfootball,” a modified version of conventional football but with a social goal, together with the football industry, governments, foundations and other citizen organizations, to leverage their work and enhance their ability to serve society. By connecting carefully selected citizen sector organizations that use streetfootball as a tool for social change in a variety of fields such as HIV prevention, environmental protection, integration of immigrants, peace building, or gender equality, Jurgen enables them to exchange best practices and ideas for collaboration. More than a mere network, however, his organization “streetfootballworld” links its members with other citizen sector organizations in their fields and with local governments and foundations. He matches them with sports-related corporations and with global football associations, which channel new financial and professional resources into the social sector, simultaneously sharpening social awareness and changing policies of corporate social responsibility. These encounters crystallize into events such as the global streetfootball tournament and the Streetfootballworld festival, which he invented in order to change the perception and identity of the participants as well as the public view of them. Lastly, he brings together young people from all over the world who are involved in streetfootball into a global community through online virtual play and exchange.