Christmas Surprise at United Through Sport Argentina

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In November, Kevin Hagiel from Germany travelled to Buenos Aires to support United Through Sport Argentina. He is a player and coach at FC St. Pauli Rabauken in Hamburg. He came to Buenos Aires for a 6 week Football Volunteer programme and did a great job. His Spanish was good enough to gain the kids attention and affections.

By Christmas Eve, Kevin had finished his programme, but he couldn’t leave before giving some special presents to the kids he had been coaching for the past 6 weeks. At the end of his final session, when all of the kids thought it was time to finish, Kevin revealed the special gifts that he and FC St. Pauli Rabauken had arranged for them. Sport shirts, shorts and socks were given to the kids. Christmas came early for the kids from Pereyra park and for Kevin too, who couldn’t believe how happy and grateful the kids were.

We want to thank Kevin Hagiel and FC St. Pauli Rabauken for this amazing gesture. Beside Messi, Aguero and Tevez is a new name – and that name is Kevin.

 

Tennis Success for our Ghana Boys

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United Through Sport in Ghana Academy Boys, Coaches and Staff give their best wishes and congratulations to three of the Ghana Tennis Players – Emmanuel Wettey, Albert Nti and George Nyarko. The three boys, all aged 15 years competed in the Seniors Tennis Tournament at the Accra National Sports Stadium and all managed to reach the tournament’s third round before making their exits from the competition. This is an incredible achievement for our Academy’s Tennis players as their opponents were much older than them as well as being considerably taller as well – as you will see in the photographs below!

Albert Nti completed the trio’s campaign in the tournament on Tuesday afternoon as he went up against the Ghana number 2 seed, George Darko. Albert was defeated in the match but he played tremendously and put up a good fight – much to the surprise of his opponent who was almost twice his size! Albert was easily returning his opponent’s fast serves and had him running around the court to reach his shots. As the match got into full swing more and more people filtered into the court to watch our junior player in his challenging match as he was surprising every one with his talent and skill. The final score left Nti defeated 6-1, 6-1 by Darko.

Some of the other match highlights in the tournament included Albert’s first round clash against Francis Gbolonyo – the match went on for three sets with the final result seeing Nti victorious with a win of 7-5, 1-6, 7-4.

Fellow United Through Sport Academy players George Nyarko and Emmanuel Wettey met each other in the second round; the match ended with George Nyarko defeating his colleague 6-1, 6-0 – although defeated by a fellow colleague the pair displayed excellent sportsmanship and congratulated each other on a challenging match.

Nyarko’s tournament campaign came to a close after being defeated by the Ghana number 11 seed, Francis Akpese. The match finished up with Akpese winning 6-3, 6-4 and moving on to the final stages of the tournament in the latter part of the week.

The tournament was a fantastic experience for all three boys and proved a great opportunity for them to showcase their talents to the Ghanaian Tennis world.

10th Anniversary Boat Party Reunion

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United Through Sport is excited to announce our 10th Anniversary Reunion Party. We want to celebrate the ongoing hard work done by our staff and thank all of our volunteers for the support they have provided over the decade of operations that began in South Africa.

To show our gratitude, we are throwing a reunion party for all those who have supported United Through Sport’s cause over the last ten years. The night will take place on a cruise down the river Thames on the 20th December, from 20:00 until midnight. On board is a bar, dance floor and DJ, so everything is in place for a really fantastic evening!

Admission is in the form of a donation of £20.00. To book your place, click here and follow the “joining instructions” on screen. You will be given the option of putting your name with the donation – please remember to do this so we know exactly who has paid and who is attending. If you are a UK taxpayer then you will be eligible for Gift Aid, so remember to use this option when prompted (it means that the government will give us an extra 25% on top your donation, at no extra cost to you!).

Unfortunately, the contact details we have for a lot of our volunteers may be out of date, so if there is anybody that you think we might not have been able to contact please extend this invitation to them if possible.

If you need any further details, or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can e-mail Jack or Ia at the United Through Sport office on [email protected]

This will be a great opportunity to get back in touch with the friends you’ve made through United Through Sport and we would really love to see you all there!

Football trials in UK for Ghanaians

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After completing a successful first two weeks of the UK tour in Portsmouth, our three academy boys from Ghana, have moved on to Scotland where they will be spending the next month training with St Mirren. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the boys to broaden their perspectives on football in the UK and Europe.

Other top level clubs in the UK such as Chelsea and Manchester City have also taken interest in what we are doing as a charity so the future for these boys and the charity as a whole is looking very exciting.

 

United Through Sport Hosts Youth Rugby Tournament

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Having hosted the inaugural event last year; United Through Sport, the St. Lucia Rugby Football Union and Micoud Youth & Sport Council came good on their promise to come back with a bigger, better event this year.

With returning teams from Micoud, Laborie, Pierrot, and Babonneau plus the additions of newly formed junior teams from Castries Comprehensive, Pierrot and Laborie, the tournament was split into U17’s and U12’s championships.

U12’s winners being Becky Hughes’ Pierrot ‘Local Heroes’ who were coached and managed by United Through Sport volunteer and England International Becky Hughes. The U17’s Championship was won by last year’s runners up Laborie RFC.

United Through Sport would like to express a wealth of gratitude to SMJ beverages for the provision of water and other drinks to the Tournament and preceeding training sessions in the aforementioned districts.

Another Year of Colour Run

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It was that exciting time of the year again where our children had the chance to get involved in the “Happiest 5km Run on the planet”! The Color Run in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) took place on Sunday 24th August, and as the charity partner of the event, United Through Sport was very involved in the preparation and organisation for the big day. From packing the goodie bags to manning the “colour stations” on race day, United Through Sport provided over 40 volunteers to ensure the success of the event.

On a few evenings leading up to race day, our international volunteers took pleasure in getting together registration packs and preparing logistics for the run. It was bitter sweet for 20 of the 40 volunteers who would be leaving South Africa just a day before the race, but they made the most of their involvement and had ultimate fun in the registration process.

Having never heard of The Color Run before, the children from the Junior School of Excellence program were super excited to be taking part in such a colourful day! The cold and rainy weather on the morning of the race had no chance of dampening their spirits; they were just too happy and energized to be getting cold! Singing along to their favourite happy tunes and unexpectedly seeing United Through Sport staff at the colour stations shooting them with bursts of colour made the run even more fun for our kids.

The kids had such a blast competing as to who would be the most colourful by the end of the day, with the intention of giving their parents a difficult job getting their clothes clean; the wet weather being great assistance in their plans. It’s not clear who won the most colourful prize though between the United Through Sport volunteers and the kids, as the volunteers were on a mission of their own to end their South African volunteer experience on the happiest and most colourful note!

We were very happy to be nominated as the charity partner in the second year running of The Color Run Port Elizabeth. It indeed proved that last year we did a great job, and we wish to continue with the partnership in the future. All funds donated by The Color Run will go towards our scholarship program, ensuring better educational pathways for the children in the Junior School of Excellence as they progress to high school.

“What a crazy and fun day this was, I just let go and went crazy along with all the runners; it really is the happiest event ever!” – Siyamthanda Ngcakana, Rugby, Junior School of Excellence.

A Different Way to Fundraise

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We love hearing about all the weird and wonderful ways that people like to support and help fundraise for United Through Sport and we encourage you to come up with something unique and interesting.

Recently, sports enthusiasts, Lynsey and Chris Davis, held a naming ceremony for their two children, Max and Ben. Instead of asking for gifts (as we are sure Max and Ben have plenty of toys already!), the very generous couple decided that they would ask friends and family to donate towards United Through Sport, so children less fortunate could also benefit. Through this very simple but effective idea, not only have they been able to raise over £500 but they have also sent out an important message about recognising what we have so that we are able to share more with others.

The ceremony had plenty of people enjoy a fun and gamed fueled day, providing a great opportunity to get friends and family together to celebrate the lives of Max and Ben. Check out a few photos below and a massive thanks goes out to all that have donated to United Through Sport.

If you have an interesting way that you have fundraised for us then get in touch as we want to hear about it.

Brazil Success for South Africa

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“Wow….what a two weeks it has been. I don’t even know where to start! We have just returned from what feels like a dream” – Athapelele Ngwendu, United Through Sport South Africa Scholar.

These were the words of one of our 8 children returning from Brazil having participated in the Street Football World Cup alongside the FIFA event. The trip was to take part in a Football competition but what the group got from it was a whole lot more.

From visiting local Favelas and interacting with the local community to learning Capoeira (a Brazilian form of dance fighting), playing in front of crowds of 100’s in the bustling city centre of Sao Paulo (the largest city in South America) to learning Spanish and making life-long friends with their Argentinean house mates. This trip was filled with such a richness of experiences and learning opportunities that it will take many more weeks to fully digest what they have done and achieved.

On the field the team did extremely well considering their age and background. We cruised through the group stages of the competition with big wins over USA and Costa Rica and a nail biting victory over the Philippines, only to set-up an extremely tough encounter with Ghana in the round of 16. The team were unlucky to lose to a much older, stronger more physical Ghanaian team. From here we moved into a ‘Fair-play’ group which we topped by beating Philippines and Panama and drawing with Sierra Leone, who boasted a full time professional player. Proudly we also finished the competition as one of the few teams to finish with maximum fair-play points for Respect, Cooperation and Solidarity.

Off the field the kids made us even more proud. We proved to be one of the most popular and well supported teams in the competition, especially amongst the locals. This was in no doubt due to the open nature in which our kids engaged with the many other teams and cultures they came across.

A true testament to the impact they had on the other teams was at the fair-well, when we left our house mates from Argentina, Philippines and Panama where endless tears flowed as the new friends were separated for the first time.

It was a truly wonderful trip for the United Through Sport kids that participated which created experiences and memories that will last for a life time. Most important is the lasting impact that the trip has had on their interpersonal skills, their cultural awareness and their aspirations for the future.

“I learned about so many different countries and cultures, I learned Spanish, Portuguese, German and Filipino. We took part in so many discussions and debates and we saw and experienced so many new things. I really feel like our brains were bombarded with new information to learn. It’s left me with a desire to travel more, see more and learn more…I will never forget this experience” – Lindiwe Cezula – United Through Sport South Africa Scholar.

Check out a video of Lindiwe’s trip to the Brazilian World Cup 2014.

Over a 1000 balls donated

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After a generous donation of over a 1000 balls (football, basketball, netball and rugby) and various sports kit from sports manufacturer OPRO, we have been able to distribute this out to our teams in Ghana. A massive thanks goes out to OPRO for this huge support.

“Thank you for the photos! They are lovely. We are extremely happy to see the balls being put to good use.” Sophie Lovat – Development Director

As we continue to build our teams overseas there is a big need to provide a consistent flow of decent sports equipment. Without the right tools for the job we cannot expect our kids to develop to their full potential in their respective sports. So this comes as a huge help.

It is quite a mission for us to ship and transport equipment from the UK overseas, but on rare occasions this is possible. Our preferred method of getting equipment to our partners in Argentina, Ghana and South Africa is to raise funds to purchase the equipment locally. This not only saves the hassle of shipment and import duty costs, it also helps to build up a local economy by supporting sports equipment retailers in the disadvantaged communities where we work.

If you feel you would like to get involved with supporting our equipment distribution project then you can visit our donate page.

National Development Clinic for Female Cricketers

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United Through Sport Combine with St. Lucia Cricket Association in National Development Clinic for Female Cricketers

The St. Lucia Cricket Association is hosting a National Women’s Cricket Development Clinic this week, for national players and other young talented female cricketers. Our team are working alongside some of the region’s most respected coaches former players, including former West Indies Captain and Legend of Women’s Cricket Nadine George!

This two day clinic will cover all aspect of the game with the female players with technical and tactical scenarios and even media training. The United Through Sport Coaching team includes Director Joël Martin, Manish Patel, James Powell.