Unite raises £60,000 for ‘Balls to Poverty’
campaign
Unite once again sponsored 22 young
footballers from South Nottingham College, one of the few FE
colleges still delivering print-related training for printers in
the Midlands, to share their expertise with South African school
kids.
The Unite
GPM sector branches alone raised over £10,000 towards the Balls To
Poverty campaign and Bernard Rutter, who has worked with the
college for over 15 years said: “Unite has given great
support over the last two-years to enable youngsters to not only
visit South Africa, but to interact with children in some of the
poorest townships through playing football. The support was
fantastic, and the final total was £10,500 towards the cost of
distributing 7,000 football to kids in South Africa.”
Unite AGS Tony Burke added: "We have
great links with our sister union in South Africa and it was great
to have the cheque presented at the Unite Conference to our South
African colleagues Keith Jacobs and Randall Howard."
Joe Sargison, the SNC director of football was
overwhelmed by the generosity of the union with the overall total
over £60,000. He said: “None of this could have been
possible without the financial support of Unite. We are now
planning for the 2008 tour to South Africa and the work has already
started to deliver more opportunities for young South Africans to
be inspired through sport.”
Photograph:
Presentation of the cheque for £10,500
at the Unite Conference
(left to right) Keith Jacobs
(Deputy General Secretary of the South African union CEPPWAWU which
covers the print and paper industry); Martin
Scanlon (Unite); Stephen Skinner (Amicus
Foundation); Joe Sargison (Director of Football at
South Notts. College); Bernard Rutter (Unite) and
Randall Howard (General Secretary South African
Transport and Allied Workers Union)
