Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Great Football Giveaway - update from Tanzania

Just to let you know that we've heard from Duncan, Karl & Disco out in Tanzania and their project to deliver over 1,500 balls in one of the north-west region of the country is now fully under way. Duncan's team is one of many heading out to different regions across Tanzania, together aiming to hand-deliver over 6,500 footballs and netballs direct to some of the country's most difficult to reach kids. Hats off to them - it's incredible what they're doing.
A huge thank you to everyone who gave balls to help make this possible.
Duncan's initial comments were:
Well here we are, way out west in Tanzania in the Kibondo region which bumps right up against the Burundi border.  Being so far removed from the capital has resulted in relatively little government investment for infrastructure e.g. roads, hospitals etc.

There is also the added interest of the national elections which were held yesterday and this captures the public imagination more so than in the UK, with the turnout around 75%; quite staggering for a largely rural population.

However what is capturing the children's imagination is a small team of three mzungu visiting the remotest parts of this region giving away footballs and netballs.

We spoke to a headmaster at one school who told us that some of his girl pupils think nothing of walking 18km to school despite the risk of rape en route; another at a boarding school showed us where the girls were sleeping 2 to a single bed and this where nearly 500 girls had one old netball for the whole school.

However despite the hardships, these are not unhappy children; however the reaction when being given footballs and netballs takes this to a new and explosive level of sheer joy!!!!!!......all possible due to people like yourself who have so generously donated....So on their behalf, thank you.

More later as we now head further north-west towards the Rwanda border......should be interesting
Duncan, Karl and Disco 

As before, we won't bombard you with loads of emails about their projects, but if you want to stay in touch you can do so via our Blog or Facebook
Blog: http://thegreatfootballgiveaway.org.uk/blog.htm
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheGreatFootballGiveaway

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