14 December 2007
African Children are Fans of Elta
By Elta
14 December 2007
Elta’s OEM/Industrial Field Sales Engineer Neil Jolliffe showed his support for the children of a remote Gambian Town recently, when he made a trip to Africa to hand over English football strips to kit out the local football team.
Having travelled around the world, Neil originally went to The Gambia in 2004 and with the aid of a guide ventured into remote areas where the children were extremely passionate about English football, as he explains:
“I sat and watched local children play a game of football between two areas of a town called Bakau. Most of the kids had no football boots and were barefoot, the ball was threadbare and their clothes were almost rags, but they were very happy and asked lots of questions about the English premier League.”
“Everyone was extremely friendly and I was invited into their homes to stay and even though they have very little, they shared everything with us. I vowed that I would be back in the future to bring football gear to them.”
Following Neil’s return to the UK, he rallied together colleagues at Elta Fans whose children play for local football teams and asked for them to donate unwanted kits. “Everyone was extremely generous”, Neil says, “Between myself and two of my work colleagues, we managed to get together three full kits, all with numbered shirts, football boots, socks and footballs. When I returned to Africa earlier this year with the donated items, the smiles on the children’s faces couldn’t have been bigger. The new Bakau Lions, as we named them played a game in their new kits and drew one all. I will never forget watching them try on the football boots and the smiles it put on their faces and I have certainly made friends for life!”
Neil plans to return in the coming year to visit his guides new baby son who has been named Neil in his honour.
Elta Fans is part of the £85 million Elta Group, a family of businesses with operations in six countries on four continents which, together with a network of international distributors, provides quality fans and related air movement equipment to customers worldwide.
