Touraid Festival of Rugby 2015
Published on isbi School News dated Friday 15th of April 2016
Bishop's Stortford College is working in conjunction with the charity TourAid by hosting a group of children from Botswana; the Thamelo Project, as part of the Festival of Rugby 2015. UK charity TourAid started in 2006 and has now facilitated over 70 groups of disadvantaged boys and girls to come to the UK from 34 different nations. Children from 9 countries are taking part in this year’s Festival including Loa, Keyna, India, Hong Kong, Uganda, South Africa, Swaziland and Colombia. The tour has a huge impact on those taking part; changes in attitudes, perceptions, aspirations, confidence and self-esteem are revealed and the children return determined to make their lives and the lives of those around them better. They become the coaches, mentors and role models in their home communities. It also gives College pupils an insight into how other people live. The team arrived from Botswana on Wednesday 30th September at Heathrow and were collected by Mr Barnard, Head of Rugby in the Prep School. The Botswanan team and their coaches joined the College community and stayed with 5 host families. The entire Prep School community has benefited from meeting the visitors, not just those directly involved in rugby, but in everyday classes too. The Prep School under 13 rugby team and the boys from Botswana then travelled to Henley RFC for their first tournament while in the UK. They played 5 games throughout the day which included teams from South Africa and 2 from Kenya. It was a great day of rugby, despite the rain. Bishop's Stortford College was able to present a remarkable £9,000.00 to TourAid at Henley. The College has been raising money for TourAid since July. The Arena Group, the Design & Build Delivery Partner for the Rugby World Cup, has been instrumental in raising the majority of this money by asking their suppliers to help TourAid as well. The College would like to extend enormous thanks to Arena Group and their community for their fundraising. Mr Muir of Arena Group, pictured here with John Inverdale (Patron of TourAid) and Chester Williams. Photographs courtesy of Arena Group.
