Malawi youngsters kitted out in
Boro' colours
Published: 18 October 2007
Gosport Borough Youth have teamed up with Bay House School in an initiative to help orphans in the southern African country of Malawi.
The former
British protectorate has more than a million orphans, the majority of whom
became orphans when their parents died of AIDS.
The charity Friends of Mulanje Orphans was founded in 2000 to help the orphans in Mulanje - a district in the south of the country. From small beginnings the charity now looks after over 4,000 throughout its network.
Pupils and staff at Gosport's Bay House School have been actively working with the charity for some time and it was while headteacher Ian Potter was organising a fact-finding mission to Malawi that it came to his attention that the charity were in desperate need of equipment for the sports mad youngsters.
An internal email soon reached Boro's Under 11s assistant manager Dave Penfold - himself an employee at the school. It didn't take long for Dave to contact Neil Butt the chairman of Gosport Borough Youth to see if there was anything the Club could do.
"I telephoned Neil and explained the situation at Bay House with regard to the trip to Malawi and asked him if there was any chance that Gosport Borough had any equipment that they were able to donate," said Dave.
Eventually three holdalls of old Boro' Youth kit were uncovered - something that rapidly filled Bay House's luggage allocation on the flight Dave commented!
The football kits were put straight into action once they reached Malawi as a football tournament had been arranged. On his return from the country, Bay House's representative said, "there was no lacking of passion in the rivalry at the football tournament we watched. The Gosport Borough shirts were worn with pride."
Now the fact-finding mission is complete, the pupils at Bay House are very much looking forward to their trip to Malawi and are putting a lot of work and effort into the preparations to get there.
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