Forever Friends of Uganda !
Many of you know - but far more of
you do not know - about my work with our charity, Forever Friends of Uganda.
For more than 15 years, we have been supporting village children who possess
nothing; not even the means to a primary school education; and often without
the shoes needed to walk to school and to protect their health.
So why tell you about it now? And
what has it to do with Stockport County? Well, firstly because I have been a
County fan for almost 70 years. Admittedly a fair amount of that time has been
in exile (both in Africa and in France). I get to as many matches as I am able
and wonderfully the tradition has been passed down to son and grandchildren who
are present at most home games.
The second, and more immediate,
reason is that because of this connection, County has awarded our charity the
opportunity to make a bucket collection at the home game with North Ferriby
United this coming Saturday, 23rd September.
We already have a good number of
supporters among the County faithful. Fellow fans who make donations, have
become members and who sponsor children’s education. We are grateful to
everybody who helps, no matter how small the contribution, because every penny
counts. But our special thanks go to Steve and Pat Parfett who are most
generous donors and friends to our work.
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| Clean Water Project, Funded by FFOU. |
At the heart of what we do is our
child sponsorship programme. At the time of writing our supporters fund the
education of around 100 children, ranging from nursery school, through
secondary and vocational courses, to
university. Giving youngsters with nothing the opportunity to have a meaningful
future is central to our philosophy.
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| Anna Akoyi- Uganda's first lady FIFA accredited coach ! |
But there is far more to it than
that. Over the years we have financed the construction of classrooms, a school
hall, teachers’ accommodation and a range of other buildings needed to run the
schools. We have provided them with water and solar panels - there is no
electricity otherwise. We support an orphanage. A current programme is a
reading for pleasure scheme in villages where there is no such tradition and
where the money to buy books is beyond their dreams.
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| County fan sponsors 100 pairs of shorts ! |
So …… what about the football
connection? We partner the Wisdom Academy at Maganjo. Over the years, County
and County’s fan-base have supplied us with kit for children of all ages and
including the academy’s girls’ teams.
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| Locals kitted up ! |
We are honoured to say that whenever we
visit (that is in most years), we are able to take donated items for these ambitious young players - as well as taking
clothing in general for the children in the schools.
Our target? To make our Ugandan
friends self-sufficient. We are making progress, but there is still a long way
to go. Our motto is “helping others to help themselves.
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| The next generation of Ugandan County fans. |
Please talk to us and give our merry
group of “bucketeers” a cheerful smile
on the 23rd and be as generous as you can. I promise that it will be greatly
appreciated and the funds collected will be well and properly used. I am coming over from France for the
weekend. It is something that I just could not miss; County and our Ugandan
work are both central to my life. I look forward to saying hello to as many
people as possible.
If any among you would like to know
more, I am always available; or you could check out our Blog:
And ….. take a look at our our
Forever Friends of Uganda Facebook Page.
Till Saturday
Keith Mills
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