- Community News round-up
- Football charity to build new day-care centre in South Africa
- Teen walkers raise money for the blind
- Find out more about the Jersey Blind Society below
A CHANNEL Islands charity is set to fund the construction of a new day-care centre in South Africa.
Goal50 was set up by Guernsey-based Nigel Pascoe in 2010 with the aim of helping street children in and around South Africa’s Cape Town region. Now Nigel has acquired a plot of land from the South African government on which both the day-care centre and an orphanage will soon be built.
‘Originally, the aim was to build just an orphanage,’ said Nigel, ‘but thanks to increased funds we’ve now been able to expand on that.’
Nigel was first inspired to found Goal50 after visiting Great Commission United (GCU), a South African soccer academy set up by local reformed street gangster, Mario Van Niekerk.
‘I was in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup,’ he said. ‘I spent a day with Mario and saw first hand the brilliant job he was doing in the community. Once I was back in Guernsey I thought, well, there’s a guy who warrants support. It all snowballed from there.’
Since then, Goal50 has raised over £225,000 to help support the GCU and its aims. ‘I’d say around 95% of the funds that have been raised have come from the Channel Islands,’ said Nigel. ‘We’ve also been sent sports kits from local families which we’ve then shipped out to the academy. Mario has teams set up for under-15s, under-17s and under-19s. It really helps to keep the children active and engaged which in turn helps with their wellbeing and education.’
Goal50 also delivers feeding programmes which provide meals for the township of Langa, a 1.1 square mile settlement with a population of over 100,000.
‘It’s hard to believe that people live in such appalling conditions. You’ll see families living in shacks, often with up to ten people crammed together in one small room,’ he said. ‘A single standing order of £10 a month provides around 30 meals. This is vitally important as often it’ll be the only hot meal they receive all week.’
The charity also offers a job creation scheme, which helps to tackle the 80 per cent unemployment in the area. Drugs remain the area’s main problem, however. ‘The most common drugs are heroin, crystal meth and unga, which is a particularly lethal combination of heroin, rat poison and cleaning fluids,’ said Nigel ‘There are children there as young as 12 or 13 who are hooked on it. The average life expectancy now is around 15.’
Born and raised in Cornwall, Nigel has been living in Guernsey since 1993 with his wife, Jayne. A director of lending for Skipton International, Nigel visits South Africa on average twice a year, most recently in March of this year.
‘One week before leaving we received confirmation that the South African government had agreed to sell us the land needed for the orphanage and day-care centre,’ said Nigel. ‘It’s always encouraging to see the progress being made.’
Mario had long held ambitions to build an orphanage in the area and now, in large part thanks to Nigel and Goal50, his dream is set to become a reality. ‘Ultimately we want to enable children to develop the necessary skills to move forward in life, away from a life of crime,’ says Nigel. ‘We encourage them to think about what skills they have and how they could use their skills to benefit society.’
For more information on Goal50, or to make a donation, visit goal50.com or email Nigel on Goal50gsy@gmail.com.
Teenagers raise £1,250 for the blind
FOUR Highlands College students have raised £1,250 for the Jersey Blind Society by organising a sponsored walk as part of their business studies course.
George Brown (18), Thomas Crawford (18), Sam Tumkaew (18) and Guy Stephens (19) had to organise an event for a local charity as part of the course and decided to stage a sponsored walk in aid of the Jersey Blind Society.
The seven-mile walk from La Frégate Café to St Aubin and back was supported by a good number of Islanders, some of whom are visually impaired.
The four said that they were grateful to
everyone for their support and that the money raised would go towards a very worthwhile cause.
Scott Douglas from the Jersey Blind Society community team expressed thanks to the four for their efforts.
‘The four boys did a fantastic job at organising the walk, raising money as well as helping us to raise our profile,’ he said. ‘We were over the moon to hear that the final total was £1,250 and we would like to thank the organisers, everyone who took part and people who donated money on the day.’
- THE Jersey Blind Society is one of the Islands oldest charities.
- Founded in 1886, it has been supporting Islanders with a visual impairment for over 125 years.
- It has a purpose-built centre in St Martin, Westlea Centre, which is used for a variety of activities, hosting support groups and providing training.
The society aims to:
a) Assist blind and partially sighted people to achieve or retain independent living and to achieve inclusion and participation in the workplace and society.
b) Provide training or the financing of training in Jersey or elsewhere.
c) Provide a forum for, and encourage advocacy of, the views of blind and partially sighted people.
d) Promote measures for the conservation of sight and the prevention of blindness.
