Tonbridge are Angels for Kenyan children’s home

RYMAN Premier side Tonbridge Angels have rallied around to supply a Kenyan children’s home with professional football kit.

The Cherry Brierley Children’s home in Kisumu, Kenya, have been donated boxes of boots, gloves and shin guards after club staff and fans chipped in.

The appeal came from Angels’ chaplain Neil Durling, after he noticed a skip full of flood damaged football strips outside the club’s ground following last Christmas’ floods.

Tonbridge support Colin Hill offered to wash and press the kit as well as organise delivering it to Kenya by courier, before the appeal brought a variety of other useful football accessories.

Durling said: “In a world where we often hear the bad news about football, I am delighted that a club of Tonbridge Angels’ size can make such a massive difference for children thousands of miles away.”

Hardcore support Hill added: “I was surprised just how much kit there was, there was enough to kit out several teams.

“It occurred to me if other kit – such things as goalie gloves, shin guards and proper football boots – could be sent as well, a real difference could be made for the children’s experience of the game. An experience all our children take for granted but in Africa, it is mostly just a dream.”

Kisumu Children, a small Tonbridge-based Christian Charity, is dedicated to improving the lives of some of Kenya’s poorest children by running a 50-bed orphanage, supporting ten community children within their own homes, and working with the local community towards further development projects.

Alison Hills, from the charity, said “This is amazing, I can’t tell you how excited the children will be. The children at the home love to play football at every opportunity and they now have the chance of playing it dressed in professional football kit.

“That they will be able to play as if members of a proper team for the first time is fantastic.”