About Us

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We are three guys from the Isle of Wight that are flying to South Africa to work alongside other football fanatics as part of an organisation known as Lionsraw. South Africa 2010 is the debut Lionsraw Special Project. Lionsraw is taking a 130 strong squad of football fans to Durban, South Africa for two weeks during the World Cup. The Lionsraw team will operate in ‘The Valley of a Thousand Hills'', the epicentre of the World's HIV / AIDS crisis. Alongside existing local charities the team will help in ‘construction projects' and ‘soccer academies' for deprived local children during the day. Each evening the squad will retire to our fanzone for the full world cup tour experience.

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Excited, scared, grateful, humble and guilty: my various responses in the last few weeks as I’ve been asked about our trip to South Africa with Lionsraw. It is certain that there will be plenty more experiences in the next few weeks and I hope that this blog will help to share at least some of it.

In two weeks, we’ll be knee-deep in mud and cement, starting the Lionsraw building projects. Between us, Len, Steve & I plan to update this blog most days with photos, videos and observations from South Africa, so please follow us and post your comments and observations. We don’t want to clutter up the internet too much, but we’re aiming to:
- keep in touch with family and friends
- say thank you to all the people who have supported us and Lionsraw
- let you know about the people we meet and places we visit

So, let’s kick off with some background.

Why are we going to South Africa with Lionsraw?
Personally, I’m going because I think that it is a brilliant idea – to harness the passion and belief of football fans to make a difference to the lives of kids who are suffering from the ravages of HIV/Aids in some of the poorest areas of the world. I’m really looking forward to getting caught up in the excitement of the World Cup and the chance to do something useful at the same time is the kind of genius idea which can only have been inspired directly by the Holy Spirit (channelled through Jon Burns, of course!).

What are we going to do?
I’m not exactly sure, but we will be building either at Inchanga School, Sithembakuye Children’s Home or Makaphutu Children’s Village. Each of these projects are doing fantastic work to help kids who have been affected by HIV/AIDs and we’ll be building some more space for them, so that they can do even more good work.

Are we prepared?
None of us have done much building work before. When he heard of our plans, my brother was kind enough to let me get some practice in by helping to put down a concrete base for his new garden shed! Thankfully, there is a Lionsraw team already on site now, putting in foundations and making sure that everything is level. We’ll be mixing concrete, lifting blocks and basically building walls “like lego”. That’s the theory – if you follow this blog you’ll find out how it works out in practice.

Cheers, Martin

1 comment:

  1. This is a fantastic idea and I wish you all a safe journey. May God be with you and give you the strength to do what will be a very difficult task.

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