16th November 2016
Unfortunately, we had to bid farewell to our Serbian guests yesterday morning, despite Ahmet’s pleas to swap homes with Gôl! representative Chester Hartley.
The 6-day long visit saw 4 orphans and 2 carers visit South Wales and London, taking in a range of cultural and recreational activities.
Bojana Jevtić, one of the carers said, ‘Thank you for facilitating this fantastic trip for us and a special thank you for the warm welcome we received in Wales. We hope to welcome you to Serbia next year.’
Whilst all 6 were in awe of London’s size, it was Caerphilly Castle that stood out for the carers, and the kids particularly enjoyed meeting Gareth Bale and the atmosphere in Saturday night.
Gôl! would like to thank Game On Wales, Aleksandra Jones, CADW, FA Wales and all of you who have supported us to help fund this trip. We are continuing to fundraise into the new year where we have events lined up for all Wales matches, including visiting the children in Serbia.
31st October 2016
As we prepare for our next international break, here’s a review of our activities around the Georgia match:
Gôl! brought two young Georgians over for the recent World Cup qualifying game in Cardiff. Give Mukbaniani, 14, and Baaka Gibradze, 15, had a week of visits and sightseeing in south Wales and London before walking out as mascots with their national team.
The boys come from the city of Kutaisi, which is twinned with Newport. After a long journey their first experience was to receive hospitality at Newport County FC. The next day the Georgian guests toured the city and met the Mayor. They had great days out at the Velodrome and the Celtic Manor hotel and went ten pin bowling. Gôl! also took the boys to Barry Island and to see their national team training before the big match.
Give and Baaka are keen footballers and were proud to have led their team out for the match. Their leader, Nicoloz Rukhadze, said, “It’s our first time in the UK and the people are nice and warm. It’s really good that we have a friendship with this country. Our city and our country is very small, it’s good to have another nation that knows about us.”
Gôl! trustee Tim Hartley said, “We really enjoyed having the boys over. It was a superb experience for Give and Baaka. Wales supporters drove to Kutaisi in 2009 and it’s great to maintain our friendship through football with the people of Georgia.”
Our game against Serbia in a couple of weeks will see us bring 4 orphans from Belgrade to have a similar experience to Give and Baka.
28th July 2016
With the Euros but a distant memory, Gôl are busy planning for the next qualifiers.
Gôl will be bringing orphans over from the city of Kutaisi in Georgia, which is twinned with Newport, and from Belgrade, where we have visited twice before, for their respective matches in Cardiff.
Today, one of our local representatives visited the Moše Pijade Orphanage in Belgrade to give a quiz on Wales and Euro 2016, in order to choose which children would come.
The children from Zvečanska and Moše Pijade home had been learning about Wales and watching our games in the Euros to prepare for this quiz. Indeed, hard work paid off as over 80% of the kids got over 18/20 correct on the round about Wales!
However, congratulations to the winners: Milica, Andjela, Ahmet and Elvis; who will be visiting Wales in November.
We couldn’t fund these visits without your help, so please donate at: https://www.justgiving.com/gol