There’s an item on the Essex FA website about Rayleigh Boys Football Club.
On certain computers it’s not very easy to read it, so we repeat it here:
Rayleigh Boys Y.F.C. have burst into 2009 by spearheading a campaign to send kit and equipment to an underprivileged South African municipality, their Press & Publicity Officer Neil Kirsh claiming: “this is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference.”
Back in June, Rayleigh began a campaign to collect football boots and kit for both the Kromdraai and Blackhill-Schoongezicht schools in the Witbank area of South Africa. The initiative began when a member of the R.B.Y.F.C. Committee advised that the company he worked for had built two schools in the area and handed them over to the South African Education Department.
However, many of the children attended the school simply to obtain a hot meal each day, with class sizes numbering up to eighty students in classrooms typically designed for thirty-five to forty. The schools did their utmost to cope, assisted by charitable donations, but there were a high number of young footballers passionate about the game whose progress was being hindered by a severe lack of kit. In fact, many of the players had to play in school uniform, school shoes, socks and bare feet.
When Rayleigh’s members learned of the plight of the African footballers, they took the bull by the horns and launched their ‘Kit for Africa’ Campaign, Kirsh explaining: “We quickly decided that a substantial donation of our football jerseys for both mini-soccer and eleven-a-side age groups was to be the first step, at the same time appealing to local parents to donate football boots and personal football kits. The subsequent response has been very positive and, since the initial donation back in August, there has been no let-up in momentum. Another sizeable batch of boots, trainers, kits, cones and footballs has just been despatched to South Africa
Rayleigh Boys are an F.A. Charter Standard club, run by volunteers for the community, and they operate over thirty football teams overall, many in the same age group as the South African school children mentioned. The club were touched by the hardship faced by these young footballers and, despite having very limited options in being able to help, the Committee felt this was an opportunity for them to collectively respond to a worthy cause, no matter how small the contribution.
Given the campaign’s success to date, Rayleigh consulted further with the Kromdraai School to identify other opportunities to improve their children’s development. They were advised of a real need for essential items such as reading and writing books, pens and pencils. With this in mind, the club wrote to local primary schools requesting their donations, Rayleigh Primary and Our Lady of Ransom Primary schools since arranging collections.
Representatives from the club will, in due course, be meeting with the Head Teacher of the Kromdraai School, so to support the campaign or to keep abreast of any developments, visit the club’s website at www.rayleighboysyouthfc.org.uk.
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