A dear friend of ours, Vic Doggart is the daughter of great Corinthian Hubert Doggart. She founded Team Playground in 2012 to build playgrounds in West Africa alongside local people with and for children. Team Playground provide safe, exciting and educational play with and for children of all ages through both playgrounds and activities including football.
From an initial playground in Brufut in Gambia in 2012, the Team have built 5 further playgrounds within Gambia and Senegal and now organise inter-village football tournaments for all girls and boys of all ages. They are currently raising funds to acquire the land to build a youth club in Brufut and the aim is to introduce cricket to the children.
As Vic reports in her own words, from The Gambia after travelling for the past few months by road…
“We made it! I want to send all the thanks from myself, team playground and the Brufut dragons for the amazingly generous gift of kits. They look super fly in them and the games have been fantastic.
“We have played the local neighbouring village every Sunday. A young team and an older team as well. Our team is from the Brufut and the other team is Madiana which is across the bush. We are hoping to find a third.
“The journey was long and eventful. We have maintained three playgrounds and built a new one as well as distributing all the donations. Thank you again for the generous gifts - we are so grateful. Regards to CC.”
As with all charities, they are looking for funding and currently their major concern is for equipment and more specifically football boots and trainers.
Should you wish to cast off all those old football boots that are no longer wanted or don’t fit any more, why not give them to a great cause? Likewise, any goal keeping gloves and sports socks. Any sizes are welcome and ideally, they are not caked in mud!
Find out more about the charity here.