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BIG-HEARTED schoolboy Raef Tanner has sent a festive thank you message to GulfWeekly readers for helping him to deliver footballing delight to needy children in Africa.
Supporters rallied round to his plea to donate soccer kits, boots and equipment for a charity project he instigated which attracted scores of kids in rural Uganda during the summer holidays.
Collection boxes were placed at St Christopher’s Junior and Senior schools and at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) and funds were also raised to assist the work of the Uganda Charity Trust Fund (UCTF).
Raef, 12, said: “Thank you for your wonderful help and support towards my project. We could not have done it without it. The kit collected has made many of my new friends happy!
“I had three goals; to collect as much new and used football kit as possible, deliver a successful summer football progamme and raise money to give to UCTF to both support the cause and in particular, to support and develop a football programme.
“Until we arrived we did not realise how little they had – only two goalposts and two very worn footballs. In the end, with all the generosity of family and friends, over £5,000 (BD2,935) was also raised.”
The soccer mad schoolboy has also sent messages of thanks to DHL Bahrain for delivering six big boxes of goodies for free, alongside St Christopher’s teachers and pupils, as well as the team at the BRFC, for backing his endeavours.
Some of the Ugandan youngsters walked miles to take part in his specially-devised summer programme in Mbale called ‘Kick to Dream’.
Raef hoped to attract around 20 boys, aged eight to 12, and on the first day 36 turned up and, by the end of the week, as word spread, almost 50 appeared. Thankfully, he had collected enough kit to distribute.
He staged two three-hour sessions a day and some of the children took off their donated jerseys and shorts and put back on their home clothes – near rags in many cases – to go home for lunch, before returning afterwards for the afternoon training.
Each session started with fitness and exercise drills, then a skills session featuring headers, throw-ins, passing, free-kicks, penalties, dribbling and ball tricks, followed by a one hour match.
At the end of each session, Raef awarded one boy a trophy for the ‘best player’ at whatever that session’s skill training was focused on and also a trophy for ‘best sportsman’ and Raef spent time explaining to them what it means to be a good sportsman.
