THEY are using sport to bring joy to poor kids in Africa.
Now a Mirfield woman is preparing to spend three weeks working in schools and orphanages in Tanzania.
Rachael Armitage will be part of a six-person team of volunteers travelling to Africa later this month to give out over 1,500 footballs to some of the poorest children in the world.
It’s part of The Great Football Giveaway project, which has helped thousands of children in recent years.
The volunteers, headed by Stephanie Branston, will travel throughout the region of Mbeya in South West Tanzania over three weeks during July and August.
The balls will be hand delivered to kids in schools and orphanages in some of the most remote areas of the country.
The charity was set up in 2006, and has hand delivered close to 20,000 footballs and netballs direct to kids in some of the poorest, rural areas of Malawi, Uganda, Angola, Zambia, Rwanda and now Tanzania.
The charity’s mission is to utilise the power of sport to help draw kids off the streets, into education, unite war-torn communities and quite simply, help to put smiles on kids’ faces.
Rachael, 33, a former pupil of Bradford Girls’ Grammar School, became involved with the project through Stephanie Branston, a good university friend, who is currently working for the charity.
Rachael works as an actuary, currently in London, and in her spare time enjoys hockey, skiing and triathlons.
She said: “The Great Football Giveaway has a very simple premise – every £10 donated is converted into a new football, pump and spare valves which we will then hand deliver to some of Africa's most disadvantaged children.
“For our project, every ball will go to children in remote Mbeya, a rural region of south-east Tanzania that is rarely visited by tourists.
“We have a great team of volunteers which is very excited about heading out in July with a truck full of as many footballs as we can fill it with. We are currently planning our route around Mbeya – we have a map, a few contact details and, most importantly of all, the freedom to plan a route which will ensure that we deliver the footballs to the children we really want them to go to.
“I have been lucky to play sport for as long as I can remember. The thought of not having a football, a hockey stick or some tennis balls available to play the sports that we love to play is incomprehensible to us in the UK.
“I cannot wait for us to get out to and start giving out all the footballs to help put smiles on children’s faces across Mbeya.”
Paul Clarke, Founder of The Great Football Giveaway, said of the charity, “The Great Football Giveaway is the simplest of ideas. A football. A kid. A smile. Beyond that, footballs are a hugely resourceful tool; they help to increase school attendance, draw vulnerable kids off the street, and show how kids from warring African villages can use football to play together in peace.”
