Looking for a last minute Christmas gift? Maybe something that others might enjoy, too. Check out the One World Futbol (or soccer ball, for those of us in the US) project. (via Ken Belson at the New York Times.)

Tim Jahnigen has always followed his heart, whether as a carpenter, a chef, a lyricist or now as an entrepreneur. So in 2006, when he saw a documentary about children in Darfur who found solace playing soccer with balls made out of garbage and string, he was inspired to do something about it.

The children, he learned, used trash because the balls donated by relief agencies and sporting goods companies quickly ripped or deflated on the rocky dirt that doubled as soccer fields. Kicking a ball around provided such joy in otherwise stressful and trying conditions that the children would play with practically anything that approximated a ball.

Something that I never would have thought of. So Jahnigen figured out how to make a soccer ball that plays well but doesn’t deflate. Super cool. Now I won’t have to find one of those needles somewhere in the utility drawer, or was it the garage, in the spring when the ball will be flat.

But more importantly, kids who don’t have much but a soccer ball can keep on playing.

They have a “buy one, give one” program where they “give a second ball to a community in need through organizations working in disadvantaged communities such as refugee camps, war zones, disaster areas and inner cities.” Or you can just give one if you’d like. Check out One World Futbol Project .