Many times the simplest solutions are the best for alleviating problems.

Footballs have provided a lifeline to children in poor countries, allowing the healing power of play into their lives. Millions of balls have been given away to hundreds of thousands of children in poverty-stricken areas and refugee camps. The problem is that often the fun would last only a day - the footballs would quickly rip or deflate on rough terrain.

Children ended up using wadded up plastic bags or a bottle, making do until somebody came up with a new, or better, ball.

"The only thing that sustained these kids is play," Tim Jahnigen, who said he was heartbroken when he saw a documentary in 2006 about children in Darfur who played with a ball made out of garbage and string, told The Times. "Yet the millions of balls that are donated go flat within 24 hours."

So for the next three years he worked to develop a ball that would never wear out, go flat or need a pump. He eventually discovered PopFoam - a type of hard foam - and with a loan from the rock star Sting, whom he knew from his work as a production engineer, he made a prototype in a year.

"When we tested the first rough prototype on the ground in Rwanda, Haiti and Iraq, it was already infinitely better than a wad of trash or a bottle," Mr. Jahnigen told The Times.

Now in its fifth incarnation, the One World Futbol (so named by Sting after a Police song) can last 30 years, Mr. Jahnigen says. There are problems - it is hard to ship because it does not deflate, and it costs much more than a regular football - but he hopes to get millions of balls to children in the coming years.