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A few fun games of futsal in Winnipeg next week will help put roofs over the heads of people living in abject poverty in Mexico.

The fourth annual Indoor Futsal Tournament for Charity will be played on March 2 and 3 at Calvin Christian School. Futsal is a form of indoor soccer played in a smaller area with fewer players.

Half of the funds raised by the tournament will go toward the Grade 11 class’s annual trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico, where the students will build new homes for people in need. The other half will be given to the neurology department at Health Sciences Centre.

The tournament is a spin-off of a charity soccer league started by Felipe Flores in 2002, which gives money every year to sponsor children in developing countries so that they can attend school rather than working.

Tim Toews, a teacher at the school who plays in the league, asked Flores — a lecturer at the University of Manitoba’s department of French, Spanish and Italian — if he could give the students Spanish lessons ahead of their trip.

When Flores heard about the work the kids would be doing, he wanted to help with their fundraising efforts.

"It’s nice to help them buy whatever they need for the trip," said Flores, an East Kildonan resident. "One year they used some of the money to buy tents. Another time they bought some water jugs for the entire group."

This year, 30 of the 32 members of the Grade 11 class will be riding school buses to Mexico, sleeping in tents, and building either three single homes — measuring 11-by-22 feet — or one single and one double home. Each student is required to raise more than $1,300 to participate.

"It’s a great project to meet these families living in shacks," Toews said. "By the time we’re done, four or five working days later, they’ve got a house that gets them off the sand and onto a concrete floor with secure walls, a locking door, and a roof overhead keeps them warm at night. It’s great for the kids to be involved in helping people who have absolutely nothing."

The tournament has raised anywhere from $680 to $1,500 in previous years, and Flores is hoping to set a new benchmark this year.

Owen Dvorak, a student from Point Douglas who is going on the trip and also playing in the tournament, said he’s eager to see how the journey affects his classmates.

"I’m looking forward to seeing the reactions when I’m down there," he said. "My parents are involved with an inner-city ministry so I know a lot of Winnipeg’s homeless people… but I’m really looking forward to seeing the reactions from people who live in Bird’s Hill or East St. Paul or whatever. Such poverty is going to be a new thing for them."

To register for the tournament — as a team for $180 or as an individual for $30 — email fflores@cc.umanitoba.ca or toews@calvinchristian.mb.ca.

avi.saper@canstarnews.com