“All I know most surely about morality and obligation I owe to football”,
Togo 2019
In 2007 Stuart was invited to speak as a Christian sports conference in Ivory Coast. At the conference, a delegate from Togo, Aimé, told him that he ran a girls’ football team called Les Amis du Monde. The meeting was life changing for both of them. It directly resulted in Stuart visiting Togo six times and indirectly in him being appointed Olympic Attaché for Togo at two Olympics.
Les Amis du Monde in action
The girls’ football team had a horrendous year in 2018. The team bus was involved in a fatal accident with the driver being killed and several players and the coach injured, some severely. While they had insurance, the company was slow and reluctant to pay out. And, of course, there is no free medical treatment in Togo. In addition to personal injury, the team lost all their balls, boots and other equipment as the bus caught fire.
Boots!
Then two girls in another club died from hepatitis. As a result the football authorities insisted that all clubs have travel and medical Insurance and that all were vaccinated against hepatitis. In principle those were both great things to do but they had left the club needing £1,000 in addition to the cost of replacing balls and boots.Thanks to the amazing generosity of our supporters, Verité Sport was able to help with several of these costs.
Players with their new boots
Because of the hard ground balls and boots wear out quickly and Verite Sport has been able to help again with equipment in 2019.