Magongo News - Summer 2009

This is a bumper edition of the Magongo News, reporting on our recent visit for the now annual two week “football extravaganza’ in Mombasa. Trustee Jan Ferguson describes her experience with the street boys including “Freelance Wednesday” papasa which is so loved by all the kids. We  have included two ‘success stories’ relating to ‘street boys’ and what can be achieved. Finally a short article about our Partner at Moyo, Fredrick (Bokey) Achola.

Download Newsletter

Freelance World are Sponsoring our 2009 football
Download press Release

Check out SKY's Soccer AM coverage of our work.

Part One
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1126121770?bctid=1762088450

Part Two
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid958992159?bctid=1776457480

Part three http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1126121770?bctid=1791627957

Volunteers wanted – if you would like to undertake volunteer work it just got easier!  We are working closely with David Smith of Kenya Help who specialise in arrange volunteer trips to Kenya.  Visit their web site at: www.kenyashelp.com/

Boxing Ring - In the summer Mike Duffy of UK Boxing Rings (www.ukboxingrings.co.uk) gave us a second hand a boxing ring that they had taken down and replaced. - it was not in very good condition and it had been cut up to get it out of the boxing club.  Our good friends Bob Skinner and Terry volunteered to re-assemble it in a form that would allow it to be more portable.

Over the coming months we rebuilt it and now it is on its way to MOYO in Mombasa.  This simple ring will have a tremendous impact upon the opportunities for the Havana Boxing Club (part of MOYO), as they can now stage there own tournaments.  Also when NOT being used for boxing it can be hired out to local churches for outside services. Once again our great friend Clive Reece arranged in the UK, packaging and paperwork etc.  We would also like to offer a huge ‘thank you’ to Don McGruther and Paul Jones at freight company Kuehne Nagel who arranged the sea freight from the UK to Mombasa.  Glad’s House has also purchased 100 fold-up ‘conference’ chairs in Mombasa so that MOYO can sell the ‘best’ seats at forthcoming competitions.

These will also be hired out for church services plus at forthcoming political rallies with a general election in Kenya scheduled for December.  So, not only do the boxers benefit but we have created another revenue stream and more jobs for the youngsters in Mombasa.

The first City Investment Agents Dinner organized by our great friend Paul Henwood, was a tremendous success.  Held at the Crypt,  Ely Place, 120 people join in a champagne reception plus a sumptuous three course dinner.  This was followed by a fund raising auction.

The whole evening generated almost £15,000 for Glad’s House which will make a huge difference to the work we and MOYO are doing in Mombasa.

Our sincere thanks to Paul Henwood (Director of the property consultancy Atisreal (www.atisreal.co.uk) and Robert Wilson of the Bleeding Heart Yard, for making the evening such a success. (www.bleedingheart.co.uk/)

Sky Sport programme ‘Soccer AM’ have now run the appeal on behalf of Glad’s House for second-hand football kit four times. The response has been tremendous.
Our great supporter, Clive Reece helped by colleagues at UPS -Heathrow and their agents, Freight-in-Time in Mombasa, have delivered 140 kgs of football strips to our Partners in Kenya at The Mombasa Olympic Youth Organisation - MOYO. On Saturday 27th Soccer AM showed a video of the shirts arriving and the MOYO Coastal Queens team turning out to play in full England Strip.
The impact that these shirts are having on MOYO and Mombasa is unbelievable.  Our great friend David Smith (from Dublin) is in Mombasa at the moment and is sending almost daily updates on the impact this appeal has had.  More news soon!

We cannot thank Soccer AM, UPS, Freight-in-time, and everyone who donated kit enough - your support really is changing lives!  Because of the appeal on Soccer AM we have also been approach by The Football Development Team (of the RAF) who are interested in going out to Mombasa to coach the footballers and their coaches in early 2008.

Our second Charity Golf Day was a tremendous success.  Splendid weather meant some great golf was played but equally important everyone had a very enjoyable day.  Our unique ‘pro-assist’ format was very successful with many of the teams taking advantage of having a ‘mini-playing lesson’ from the golf professionals who joined them for a few holes around the course.  Once again local brasserie ‘The Pour House’ provided cocktails and ‘Rainmakers UK’ provide canapés for “Cocktails & Canapés” at the 7th and 15th Tees.  The team from the consultancy firm Hat-Trick won the first place trophy with a combined stableford score of 88 points.  After golf, we were treated to a splendid African Braai (BBQ) on the terrace.  Whilst we ate, singers from the Nzinga Dance troupe serenaded us with some traditional East African songs.  It really felt like Africa had come to Hartley Wintney!  After dinner we drew the raffle and held a fund-raining auction, this was followed by the prize giving.  Everyone had a wonderful day out with 7 teams booking their places for 2008 before they left (Friday 5th September)!  Overall we raised £5,000 for Glad’s House – a very successful day all round!  Our thanks to everyone who participated, to all of our generous sponsors particularly ANAM Communications; Coutts Bank; Macintyre Hudson; Virgin Airways; Serena Hotel Group; Honda Europe and The Stock Exchange Veterans. view images »

La Quinta Club, La Manga Club, Spain

Our young supporter Amelia Swaby and her friends once again used some of their vacation time to fundraise for Glad’s House around the pool at La Quinta.  For the second year running they persuaded members and holiday-makers to donate for the ‘street children’ of Mombasa, successfully raising £156.34.  Many thanks to Ameila and her friends for a great effort.

Glad’s House on Sky TV’s programme Soccer AM on Saturday 18th August.

on Saturday 18th August, Soccer AM presenters Helen Chamberlain and Andy Goldstein launched an appeal on behalf of Glad’s House for second-hand football kit. Shown just after 09.45 they used our logo and three colour pictures of the street children playing football at Papasa. (Papasa is a Swahili word meaning “hold gently” - we take as manystreet children as want to come for an afternoon’s football every Wednesday(funds permitting) sometimes as many as 70 children play. Afterwards we takethem to a ‘kiosk’ and give them a meal. (All this for around £30 includingtransport!). Helen and Andy also promised viewers that there would be a follow up session showing the boys playing in the donated kit later in the year. (We willkeep you updated of events).
view images »

Victoria and Cliff ran 5 interactive sessions for Fort Hill Community School’s ‘Africa Week’. The sessions focused upon the plight of the ‘street children’ in Mombasa, Kenya and what Glad’s House is doing to help. Each group was asked to think of ways of raising more funds and innovative ideas for helping the ‘street children’ – they came up with some splendid suggestions which we are now working on.

One of our volunteers, Sophie Prew, arranged a fundraising ‘Tea Party’ at Bournemouth University.  After gaining tremendous support from local suppliers, Staff, students and visitors all participated and raised over £250. This was then used to help sponsor their visit to Mombasa to make a documentary. (See April 2007 above).

Through the charity ‘Alive and Kicking’ we sent 10 new footballs and a football pump to MOYO.  The footballs are manufactured by “street children” in Nairobi for ‘Alive and Kicking’.  This is great value, as the children get paid and we avoid the horrendous import duties.  http://www.aliveandkicking.org.uk/

Clients of Rainmakers UK entered teams in our first Charity Golf Day.  With a unique ‘pro-assist’ formula the teams competed for a great array of trophies kindly sponsored by the Stock Exchange Veterans.  A great days golf was interspersed with plenty of fun – all four par 3 holes had prizes, sponsored by Honda UK including the chance to win a Honda Civic Sports - as well as “cocktails & canapés” on the 9th green. The day raised over £3000 for Glad's House.

300 young people attended our music concert at The Watershed, Wimbledon. A great line-up including ‘The Seed’, ‘Kingskin’, ‘8 fold’, ‘Without Grace’, ‘Outfit’, ‘Stowic’, and ‘Hipshott’, we also had a top DJ. ALL donated their talent and time for FREE to help raise over £1,500 for Glad’s House. Also thanks to The Watershed for partially subsidising the evening for charity.

We shipped 107kgs of sporting equipment to our NGO Partner Mombasa Olympic Youth (MOYO) consisting of a huge amount of boxing equipment kindly organised by Paddy Harmey of the British Amateur Boxing Association.  Our great friend Syd Stonehouse also organised soccer equipment.  A big thank you to them and a special thanks to Clive Reece and his colleagues at UPS for organising the airfreight and clearance for us.