Balls to Poverty students to visit London

3 March 2006

20 students from Nottingham will be visiting London next week (Wednesday 8th March) to get a taste of the visit they will be making to South Africa next month for the ‘Balls to Poverty’ initiative.

The football students from South Nottingham College, who are travelling to South Africa in April to run football coaching sessions and donate footballs and football kits in the townships, will be coming to London to meet with the International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn and Derek Simpson, General Secretary of Amicus. They will also be visiting and meeting senior officials at the South African High Commission in London and touring inside the new Wembley stadium.

The ‘Balls to Poverty’ project is being sponsored by Amicus, the UK’s largest private sector union, to deliver coaching clinics to over 1,000 schoolchildren in the Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town townships. They will also be donating replica football kits and 3,000 Amicus footballs, pens and rulers to school aged children in the townships and competing in a prestigious Under 19 Youth Cup tournament in Cape Town.

Amicus’ General Secretary, Derek Simpson, said: “Amicus’ involvement in ‘Balls to Poverty’ is intended to make young people in the UK aware of the work of trade unions at home and abroad and at the same time, to involve them in something that will help change their lives and those of people in the developing world in a very real way.

“The boys day in London is really about giving them an insight into what we hope will be for them a truly life-changing experience. I am delighted that they will have the opportunity to meet the International Development Secretary and to see inside and speak to representatives of the South African government so they can understand the kind of impact their fundraising efforts here and their activities in South Africa are likely to have.”

Head Coach for Nottingham College, Joe Sargison, said: “I know the boys are really looking forward to the trip which will certainly help raise the profile of the Africa visit and to be allowed around the new Wembley stadium is a real honour for us.”

In addition to the ‘Balls to Poverty’ project, Amicus trade union is hosting a fundraising auction in South Africa House on Saturday 1st April to benefit the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. Proceeds from the event will be used to support after school and sports projects in the townships so that ‘Balls to Poverty’ leaves a legacy in South Africa ahead of the country’s hosting of the World Cup in 2010.

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