Boots For Kenya – Can You Help ?
Donations of old football boots, astro shoes, trainers etc are now being gladly accepted at the Queen’s Park Office during office hours or at the club shop on Saturday mornings from 9am until 12 noon.
From Paul Barnes, Scottish Football Partnership….
The Scottish Football Partnership are sending out an industrial container to the small village of Thigio, one hour from Nairobi in Kenya, to help support the Daughters of Charity, an organisation which cares for children in the area with desperate needs. Many of the children cared for by the charity are orphans and have lost their parents to HIV. Indeed many of the kids are HIV positive themselves. They have very little in life and often have no access to the most basic of needs such as food, water and shelter. The charity in Thigio is run by a British former PE teacher who has strived to give the children access to sports participation. Football is the most popular sport in Kenya and the charity have set up a small football club in Thigio which brings the children great pleasure. Their facilities are, as you might expect, seriously lacking though, and we were approached by the charity and asked to donate some kit. Through the relationship we have with a logistics company who we use to deliver SFP containerised changing rooms, we have been able to source an empty container and guaranteed shipment over to Kenya. Our plan is to fill this container with football kit and equipment and send it out to Thigio.
If you would like to donate some kit or equipment we would be most grateful. To date we have received many boxes and bin bags full of clothing, which is fantastic, but I’m now trying to look for donations of footwear. Very few of the kids in Thigio have proper footwear to allow them to play football and any donation at all from Scotland, would improve their enjoyment of the game immensely. The children who visit the charity range from aged 5 right up to aged 18 and beyond so any sizes of kit or footwear will make a real difference. Also, and I must stress this point, we are absolutely not looking for donations of brand new clothing or footwear. The SFP have set aside a budget which will allow us to buy new equipment nearer the time if there is a need for this.
