Tigers Team Press Release - July 07

Bristol City supports street football in uganda
A team of people from Bradley Stoke will be taking Bristol City football shirts with them to Kampala, Uganda, where street children receive food, support and rehabilitation through a football outreach programme
5th to 23rd August 2007, a team of eleven people from Holy Trinity Church, Bradley Stoke will be visiting Kampala, Uganda for nearly three weeks to work with a charity called Retrak. One of Retrak’s projects, the Tigers Club, uses football coaching to reach street children and then offer them a permanent and locally relevant alternative to life on the streets. In addition to the volunteers, the team will be taking almost £5000 achieved through generous donations and fund-raising activities and now a full set of football shirts kindly donated by Bristol City Football Club.
The Reverend Paul Peterson of Holy Trinity Church visited the Retrak project in November 2006 and is leading the team this summer. A life-long Bristol City supporter, Paul remarked;

“It is hard for us in this country to understand the reality of daily life for these children, some as young as 5 years of age. Every day they face a struggle for food, health issues and the constant threat of violence. They own nothing other than what they stand up in so I’m sure that the funds raised and the Bristol City Football shirts will be a real blessing to these boys.”

The Tigers Club project has received more recognition in recent months through “The Last King of Scotland”. This film was shot on location in Uganda and Andy Williams, RETRAK’s International Director, helped cast the white extras for the film (and even has a line in it himself). In addition 26 boys from Tigers Club appear as extras in the film. James McAvoy who plays the Scottish Doctor in the film was so taken with the project that he helped to create a documentary about life for the street children in Uganda. To see these YOUTube videos visit www.retrak.org


What Retrak offers

World-wide it is estimated that 100 million children live on the streets. The Retrak project has now established three centres in Africa including Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya where it is committed to helping street children to find long-term, sustainable alternatives to life on the streets. The project’s three main aims are to reunite children with their families wherever possible. If this is not possible Retrak seeks to find foster families for ex-street children where they will find the love, security and support they have lacked. Finally the project also aims to encourage children back into main-stream education or, for older children, into vocational training leading to worth-while employment.

What the Bradley Stoke team will be doing in Uganda

The group of eleven people from Holy Trinity Church, Bradley Stoke will be working in Uganda with the Tigers Club Project to provide staff training, organise activities for the street children (including playing football with them) and to generally work alongside the permanent Ugandan staff.

Four members of the group are 17 year old lads who attend Marlwood, and Bristol Grammar School. One of the young men, Darren Williams commented;

“I am really excited to have the opportunity to visit Uganda and to be involved in such a worthwhile project. I’m sure that seeing the Tigers Club in action will give me a different outlook on life when I return.”

ABOUT RETRAK

RETRAK has emerged from Tigers Club UK – a registered charity which was formed to support the Tigers Club Project in Uganda. A growing team of volunteers and staff in the UK, USA and Belgium have raised funds to enable the programme in Uganda to grow into what it is today– an effective and credible social work organization managed and led by a Ugandan team. Visit www.retrak.org for more information. The Tigers Club Project is a UK registered charity No. 1063025. Ugandan registered NGO.

ABOUT HOLY TRINITY CHURCH

Holy Trinity was the first church building and school to be built in Bradley Stoke, with building completed in 1993. The church is established on an ecumenical basis blending Anglican, Methodist and United Reformed into the format and style of worship. Right from the outset, the vision for Holy Trinity Church was that it would be a church for the community and today Holy Trinity is still a young, growing church with the large, modern well-equipped building used every day of the week from morning to night be numerous organisations both church and community-based.