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| NOTTS SUPPORT FOR UGANDAN CHILDREN - January 2010 |
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Football in the Community was recently approached by a local charity requesting our support to their work. The charity, Teso Educational Support Scheme, was set up 6 years ago, is a sponsorship programme enabling very needy children to benefit from post - primary education.
Teso is one of the poorest areas of Uganda, which itself is the 17th poorest country in the world. The programme aims to improve post - primary provision for the children who, after attending primary school with no cost, are limited to continue their education due to the cost. Over 200 young people benefit from the scheme. Church leaders in Teso believe the only hope of improving life in the village is through education.
Margaret Stevens, the chairperson for the charity, visited Teso for four weeks to work with the sponsored children. Notts County and Football in the Community were delighted to support the scheme by providing the children with Notts shirts and footballs.
They were gratefully received and it is hoped the gifts will gain the Magpies some new supporters. The project is predominantly aimed at females, as families will only tend to send the boys to secondary school, leaving the females with little or no hope for a better future. The majority of the children supported through the programme have lost one or both parents or live in camps.
Football is a very popular sport throughout Uganda and even within remote villages, people follow English teams. A team of 9 people went out to Teso with the main task being to run an 8 day retreat for 160 of the sponsored children. Their time was spent helping them going through topics such as starting small projects, earning money to buy essential requirements for school, being catalysts for the local community applying for bigger loans for community projects.
If you would like to know more information about the scheme please visit www.tess.uk.net .
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