Gôl in Albania
Following the Wales v Albania match, Gôl visited the ‘Help The Life Centre’ in Tirana which provides education and therapy for children and young adults with autism and additional needs. It was founded 20 years ago by Bashkim Seiti and relies totally on donations and parental contributions. It was a pleasure to meet Bashkim, his daughter Eri and other staff and students and see the fantastic work they do.
Gôl was able to donate £600 to the centre, much of which will help finance a week of activities where their students will integrate with children from local schools in sporting, artistic and cultural events. Thanks to all Wales supporters for your continued support in helping us donated to children’s charities and promote a positive image of our sport and our country.
Help us to help the children: www.justgiving.com/gol
Ireland – Girls Get Sporty
The Wales supporters’ charity Gôl! visited two projects before our win in Ireland. The fans raised €1000 to buy a full set of sport equipment to help young girls from Dublin get into football. The fans visited a training session run by Fun Direction at Central Model School.
Ciaran Duffy, who set up Fun Direction said, “There aren’t many opportunities to play on some of these inner city estates. Boys are traditionally encouraged to play football but for the girls get overlooked even though they enjoy playing just as much. We are really grateful to Gôl! This equipment means we can expand our work to yet another community.”
Supporters also visited the Balseskin refugee reception centre with gifts of clothes and sports equipment. Football works very well particularly with the young men in this setting as they wait to be rehomed across the country and the Wales fans played a 5-a-side game against the new arrivals.
Gôl! supports children’s charities whenever the national team plays. Founded in Azerbaijan in 2002 by fans who ‘wanted to make a difference’ it has been active in more than 40 countries and offers financial and practical support to good causes.
If you would like to make a donation then you can donate here: www.Justgiving.com/gol
Los Angeles, 6th June 2018
We were absolutely delighted to be able to team up with LA SCORES / America SCORES LA last week during our visit to the USA to watch the game against Mexico. Through your generous donations, we were able to give $1000 to support their end of term party for underprivileged children in the Los Angeles area.
We’d like to thank LA Scores and Geoff Wilson for their warm welcome to join in the fun celebrations and what was a feast of football.
LA Scores is part of a US-wide campaign using football and creative writing to motivate children from underprivileged backgrounds to lead a healthier lifestyle as well as encouraging team-building and wider engagement in the community.
All the children seemed genuinely motivated to play ‘soccer’ and they were very inquisitive about the origin of the Welsh dragon, with every child taking a Welsh flag home as a souvenir. Naturally, they already knew about Wales and instead of ‘Cheese’, the cry for the camera was ‘Gareth Bale!’
Perry Wyn, representing Gôl, said: “It’s great to see so many young people getting active in playing football and in community outreach in urban Los Angeles. We hope that our gift was able to help make the event a success, and to show that it’s not only Gareth Bale who can be an ambassador for Wales.”
We rely on your donations to make these trips possible and we’re already planning for our trips to Ireland, Denmark and Albania. You can always donate here: www.justgiving.com/gol.
Gôl Cymru in China
During Wales’ appearance in the China Cup, Gôl Cymru visited the Guangxi Yun Cai Centre in Nanning. It is a truly inspirational place which caters for children with cerebral palsy in the Guangxi province. Without this centre, which runs entirely on voluntary funding, many of these children would have been abandoned. Their vision is to make the children as independent as possible and focuses on developing their bodies, minds and creative talents. Thanks to your donations, Gôl Cymru was able to donate £700 to help buy specialist rehabilitation equipment.
