In December 2003, I went out to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to visit a Ugandan friend of mine, Humphrey. I met Humphrey when he came over to Notting Hill, London, to do his gap year, whilst I did my gap year in Hampton, London. He went back to Uganda after he finished his year, where he is now a youth worker at Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC).  | | Jonathan in Uganda |
When I visited Uganda, one of the first things that struck me as I was travelling from the airport in Entebbe to Kampala was the amount of English football shirts people were wearing. Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and even the odd Forest shirt! Most of them had heard of Forest, but sadly, no-one had heard of Notts County! During my visit, I learnt that KPC works with some 3,000 orphans, many of whom have lost their parents to AIDS. What a great idea, I thought, if I could take some football shirts back to Uganda to give to the orphans...  | | Do you have an old shirt like Trevor's? |
On June 26th this year, my dream will be realised when I head out again to Uganda to visit Humphrey, this time for 2 months. I have so far managed to collect just over 100 football shirts, ranging from Chelsea, to Coventry City, to Wycombe Wanderers and even Perth Glory in Australia! Many of these shirts have come from friends in Nottingham, including fellow students at Nottingham Trent University and from local churches. I'm hoping to get in touch with both Forest and County in due course to see if they could donate some shirts. As long as BA allows me to take them cheaply, each of these shirts will be worn proudly by Ugandan orphans come July.  | | Mark Draper in a classic Notts shirt |
I shall also by buying footballs once out in Uganda, so that I can play football with the youngsters and I will be visiting a couple of Tearfund projects, one in a local hospital, and also a water sanitation project. They may only be shirts to us, but my hope and my prayer is that to the orphans, they will be something that they can be proud of; something that will bring a smile to their face. Can you help? For more information or to donate some of your old football shirts, you can email Jonathan at N0024027@ntu.ac.uk. |
