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Football crazy schoolboy Raef Tanner will be spending part of his summer holidays teaching underprivileged children in Africa the skills he has picked up on the soccer pitches of Bahrain.
And he plans to travel with supplies of used and new football kit – boots, shorts, shirts, socks, shin-guards and goalie gloves – for children aged six to 12.
Collection boxes have been placed at St Christopher’s primary and senior schools and the Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) and GulfWeekly readers have been urged to help fill them with donations.
Year 7 student Raef, 12, who lives with his British expat family in Jannusan, is a tough-tackling defender who plays for his school side and trains with the Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain. He also has a big heart and said: “I have been playing football since I was five, and have become more and more fond of the sport over the years.
“I’ve played in many tournaments and won various prizes over the years and have been lucky with some great coaching here in Bahrain.
“I’m really looking forward to visiting Uganda and teaching the guys some of my tricks and techniques of how to play better football, and hopefully inspire them. I’m so excited and can’t wait to get there.”
Raef met Jaz Karim, who founded the Uganda Charity Trust Fund (UCTF), through a family friend whilst on a trip to London and the idea of staging a football initiative blossomed.
UCTF’s primary activity is to identify poor children in Uganda and support them by providing schooling. However, it also runs a summer sports programme in Mbale, a town about four hours’ drive northeast of the capital, Kampala, around cricket, tennis and football and uses sport as a medium to help children develop and teach them useful life skills.
Mr Karim asked Raef to design a programme and he quickly tackled the challenge by developing his own five-day plan called Kick to Dream with two sessions a day plus a tournament on the final session.
He has been working with Henry Muyanja, UCTF’s head in Mbale, to recruit a group of eight-to-12-year-olds. Raef will be heading to Uganda at the beginning of August to run his Kick to Dream programme and also personally distribute all the football kit collected to needy children.
Raef’s parents Jim, an Investcorp Bank executive and mum, Victoria, are very proud of their son’s endeavours. The couple have six other children.
“This programme is completely designed by Raef,” said Mr Tanner. “I do not think they have ever had such a young person deliver such an initiative.”
Raef, who dreams of one day becoming a professional footballer, was part of a four-man team which won the Arsenal School Bahrain 3v3 tournament in 2013 and a place in the Arsenal 3v3 world tournament in London. He was also a member of the BRFC U12 team who were champions in the Charles Russell League 2013 and he was part of the St Christopher’s squad which won the British Schools of the Middle East (BSME) Games in Dubai in 2012.
On a personal front, England and Chelsea fan Raef was named Players’ ‘Player of the Year’ in both St Christopher’s School and the BRFC U12 squads last year.
Nick Wilson, head of Senior School, said: “The whole of St Christopher’s is delighted to support Raef’s excellent Kick to Dream service initiative. St Christopher’s places high value on students giving service to the local and global community and we are very proud of Raef’s commitment to this cause.
“St Christopher’s wishes Raef well in his endeavours this summer and I am certain that his dedication and enthusiasm, especially in World Cup year, will make a difference to the lives of the Ugandan children.”
He has spoken to students in assembly about his plans to muster support and designed and produced his own promotional posters now on display in both Uganda and Bahrain.
One adorns the reception area at the rugby club. Sam Wilson, BRFC’s sports co-ordinator, added: “We are 100 per cent behind Raef’s efforts.”
