Following our successful #HAF kids club held during the Easter Holidays at Bagnall, which was kindly funded by Buckinghamshire Council, linked to the Marcus Rashford‘s successful free school meal campaign, we set up a weekly football training session in Chesham to support and engage young kids during term time.
One of the families we supported were 3 Syrian refugees, two girls and a boy. They spoke very little English but thanks to Google Translate we were able to communicate with them. The young boy was super excited to just play football and the other kids completely engaged with him and his sisters – which was lovely to see even though language was a barrier. The girls did give us a story that gave us a slight tear in our eyes, they were sitting by the River Chess with Clare Samways enjoying the sun, and through google translate they had a conversation where they told Clare that ‘this is beautiful’ as they had not seen running water and plants for the 7 years they were in a refugee camp – the youngest girl was only 9 herself, having spent 7 years of her life in the camp.
It is quite amazing how something we take for granted everyday can have such an emotional impact on others, it really made us think how lucky we are here in the UK.It was a pleasure working with the Kids and they certainly made an impact on our Clare and Jon. So much so that Jon started weekly football session as part of our menu of opportunities for engaging young people. Its going really well and all 3 of the Syrian kids have been taking part. If you are interested come along on Thursday… or contact Jon for a chat. Jon.martin@oasispartnership.org – 03006662747. #Chesham #Football #MarcusRashford #FUN
