Human Development Fund Launches "Beyond the Pitch" to Spotlight Families in Seven Competing Nations

CANTON, Mich., June 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Human Development Fund (HDF) has launched Beyond the Pitch, a global campaign timed to this summer's tournament that turns attention toward the communities behind seven of the competing nations. The Beyond the Pitch Fund is a new initiative supporting sports, play, and youth development for children in vulnerable communities. The campaign opened in Jordan this week at the Suleiman Center, an orphanage HDF co-founded with Sheikh Omar Suleiman, where the children played their own match on the field as the tournament unfolded around them.

Forty-eight nations are competing in this year's World Cup. HDF works in seven of them: Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, and the United States. In each, HDF has served families through food assistance, orphan care, healthcare, education, and winter relief long before the tournament began, and will continue long after it ends. In 2025 alone, HDF reached more than 3.5 million people and provided over two million hot meals.

The Beyond the Pitch Fund carries the work past the seven competing nations. In Gaza, the fund supports an amputee football program that gives young people who have lost limbs a place to train, compete, and belong. More countries and stories will follow as the campaign continues.

"For a few weeks the world watches these nations as teams. We have known them as home for years. The tournament gives us a moment to introduce the families behind the flags, and the Beyond the Pitch Fund lets that moment become something lasting for the children who need it most." - Abdirahman Kariye, Chief Executive Officer of the Human Development Fund.

Learn more about the Beyond the Pitch Fund: https://beyondthepitch.hdfund.org/

More about HDF: https://hdfund.org/

About HDF: Human Development Fund is a humanitarian nonprofit serving communities in more than 30 countries. HDF leads its own work on the ground, from emergency relief, orphan care, WASH infrastructure, to food distribution, and long-term development programs.

Beyond the Pitch is an independent campaign by the Human Development Fund and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to FIFA or the FIFA World Cup™.

SOURCE Human Development Fund