As the world honours Pelé on his 83rd birthday – the first since his passing last December – FC Mother and the Pelé Foundation form a groundbreaking partnership to harness the power of fútbol communities to help address one of the most valuable public health issues – Healing Our Mothers of Earth (H.O.M.E).

Globally, there are 4,440 fútbol clubs, and the football community comprises nearly 4.5 Billion people with a total spend of $50 Billion on community well-being, making fútbol humanity’s most powerful social, community and cultural force.

Yet, fútbol has never been leveraged for the benefit of our most valuable community: our mothers.

Over the last ten years, FC Mother and its founding partners have assembled the world’s largest well-being science and motherhood ecosystem with research and impact collaborations with 23 organisations. It is the pioneer of a new field of science on ‘healthy maternal environments’, and its research published at Harvard – with collaborators from Harvard Chan School of Public Health, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Delos, Square Roots, Commonsense Childbirth, and Humanity 2.0 - was the first to measure the total global value of healing our mothers.

FC Mother’s breakthrough insight: to build the first ‘bridge into fútbol’ to distribute its gold standard programs, thus creating a new multi-trillion-dollar category at the intersection of healing, our mothers and fútbol.

The ‘King of Fútbol,’ Pelé, is the most decorated World Cup champion of all time, as well as the founder of modern fútbol, as he transcended the beautiful game into humanitarian values and legendary principles of peace and “love”. He regularly credited his historic achievements to his mother, Dona Celeste, who is currently 100 years old, as well as his beloved community of Santos, Brazil.

“Pele worked tirelessly to ensure fútbol was a vehicle to help heal humanity, ” says Joe Fraga, head of the Pelé Foundation. “Our partnership with FC Mother is a new paradigm to deliver world class wellness and healing services to fútbol communities around the world, pioneering a new era of ‘fútbol as healing’ for our human family.”

“Today we honour O Rei Pelé and Dona Celeste,’ says FC Mother Founder Morad Fareed. “Our partnership with the Pele Foundation to co-develop the first ‘global public utility’ within futbol communities will serve as a new standard for how futbol powers humanity.”

H.O.M.E will provide mothers and families with access to a continuum of education, wellness and healing services - throughout the prenatal, postnatal, first 1,000 days of life, and throughout a new family’s development - all based on scientific ‘gold standards’ validated at the world’s leading research and academic facilities. These ‘Social Determinants of Health’ services help to fill the enormous gaps mothers face daily, between traditional healthcare and the multitude of real-life challenges and needs.

The inaugural H.O.M.E program will be located in Santos, Brazil, Pelé’s home and the spiritual birthplace of fútbol, and will launch in late January 2024.

For media inquiries, please contact caio.correa@fcmother.com.

About Pelé Foundation: After retiring from football in 1977, Pelé channeled his fame and influence into meaningful endeavors, championing causes he deeply believed in. His philanthropic efforts ranged from advocating for world peace to championing international children's rights and combatting poverty. In 1994, Pelé was honored with the appointment as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, a prestigious role recognizing individuals who wield extraordinary influence in promoting global peace and security through fostering international collaboration. In recognition of his extensive humanitarian work spanning the globe, UNESCO awarded Pelé with the 'Children in Need' in 2012. That same year, the University of Edinburgh acknowledged his lifetime achievements by conferring upon him an Honorary Doctorate Degree, a well-deserved tribute to his remarkable contributions to society. While still alive, Pelé founded the Pelé Foundation with the aim of preserving his humanitarian legacy and continuing his fight for a world with more social justice, peace, and education.

About FC Mother: FC Mother is the fruition of a 10-year sacred commitment to create a global breakthrough to help heal our mothers. In addition to pioneering a new field of maternal well-being science, FC Mother’s novel platform partners with fútbol communities to implement its programs. Its historical work includes the first policy resolution to be ratified in 83 years in the United States on maternal wellness, signed by 1,400 US Mayors; the first public health standard for maternal well-being, BIRTHMARK ™; the first maternal environment science lab, Humanity 2.0 Lab; the largest well-being science and motherhood ecosystem; the first network of free maternal wellness centers in the US; and founding a maternal health fund at Harvard Chan. For more information, please visit: www.fcmother.com