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10 of our kids visit UK Rugby Festival

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Over the last week United Through Sport have been involved with bringing 10 of our under 13s children from South Africa to play against another 9 Rugby Teams from around the world. The Festival of Rugby, organised by partner charity Touraid has given our kids an amazing opportunity to travel out of South Africa for the first time and experience a totally different culture to their own.

The tour comprised of two tournament days, hosted at Henley RFC and Esher RFC, buddy days with supporting schools (ours being Ripley Court in Surrey) and cultural days in London, visiting all the great sights.

Our 10 kids stayed with a great bunch of parents and children from Ripley Court who were also competing in the tournament, providing an ideal platform to build international relationships that will hopefully continue long after the tour is over.

The tour coincided nicely with the Rugby World Cup 2015 in England and the children enjoyed a surprise visit from former South Africa Rugby International, Chester Williams and John Inverdale, who has presented coverage of many major sporting events including the Olympic Games, Wimbledon, the Grand National and the FIFA World Cup.

Thanks to all those involved for making this a tour worth remembering given the huge amount of effort put in to make it happen.

Enjoy some of the photos from the tour, mainly taken at the Henley RFC tournament.

St Lucian Kids visit UK (TourAid)

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To mark International Women’s Day, UK Sport Charity, TourAid, hosted children from disadvantaged countries around the globe to compete with each other and teams from England. St. Lucia was represented from girls from our Marchard group, who our staff and volunteers had been working with tirelessly in preparation. A week later and a boy’s team were brought over to represent St. Lucia, comprising of players from our Marchard and Laborie groups.

The tournament was designed to develop confidence, leadership and teamwork amongst less fortunate children across the world and to forge ‘lasting relationships’ with their communities and UK schools and organisations.

Both Lucian teams were accompanied on this life changing experience by United Through Sport Coaches, Elvin & Ervin Joseph, who themselves were visiting the UK for the first time. Ervin said of the experience:

“It was an unforgettable trip for all involved, particularly seeing the range of different cultures mix and learn from one another. Both teams managed two wins each but gained so much more from this trip.”

Former United Through Sport Volunteers, Scott Black and Rupert Deane, came along on the final day to cheer on the boys team on, much to their delight.