Playing Fair
	By JEFF CHU

These days, Koss, 32, very much believes in the charity he runs, Right to Play. Started as the legacy project of the Lillehammer Olympics, the group uses sports to improve young lives in 18 developing countries, by distributing equipment, training coaches, building sports fields and promoting children's health. Its effort will get a boost this month, when 40 athletes, including Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones, launch a global campaign based on Right to Play's motto: Look after yourself, look after those around you. In Sierra Leone, which Koss visited last month, Right to Play is helping 5,000 children-many ex-soldiers-adjust to peacetime after years of civil war. "Some of the girls were sex slaves, and the boys were killers," he says. "We're creating an environment where they can have fun. The boys have a physical outlet for their aggression. The girls develop respect for their bodies."

Facilities built by Right to Play are given to the communities, so they have a sense of ownership. Groups like unicef provide other aid, such as schooling. Millions have already benefited from the 50 current projects, but Koss says that's not enough. "I very much believe in every child's right to play," he says. "Sport builds body, mind and spirit." His goal is to improve health everywhere, including the West, where "sport can be an incredibly important tool" in preventing increasingly prevalent diseases like diabetes. "People can make changes, even if they're small," says Koss. "We need to be imaginative."

That's a lesson Koss learned on his very first charity trip in 1993, to Eritrea, where he met group of pre-teens. "One boy was really popular, and I asked him why. He said he was the only one who had long sleeves," recalls Koss. "With his sleeves, he could make knots, and make a ball, so that they could play football." Koss gave them a real football, and returned in 1994 with more equipment and jerseys for the boys. The charity, then called Olympic Aid, set up a youth league. And when Koss returned in 2000, "the same boys were a team, playing in the national final," he says proudly. Football hadn't solved everything; the boys had done their best to stay out of trouble, but trouble found a few of them. One had been shot in the war. A few others were still away. But the rest were there, tight as ever, playing for a trophy together-and bringing new meaning to the beautiful game.

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	All Roads Lead to Asmara [Oct. 18, 2001] Despite years of war, the Eritrean capital has retained its colonial-era charm As War Eases, Famine Looms in Ethiopia, Eritrea [May 25, 2000] But foreign donors will be wary about pouring in relief aid because of huge military expenditure by both sides Does Helping Really Help? [Dec. 21, 1987] The West's dilemma: aid to the starving may benefit those who made them starve Search all issues of TIME Magazine Premium Content