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GHANA
TENNIS AID - HELPING THE BALL BOUNCE
BETTER IN AFRICA
In
July 2007, Sal Bolton, 24 a geography
graduate and qualified instructor from
London, England, ventured to Ghana to
live and volunteer on a tennis project
in the west African country for 5
months under volunteer organisation
‘Gap Sports’ and as an
ambassador for UK Tennis Charity ‘Tennis
For Free’. For 10 month’s
prior to the project, Sal set up her
own appeal ‘Ghana Tennis Aid’
receiving tennis rackets, clothing and
sports equipment from people and
organizations to donate to the
communities in Ghana. She kindly
received sponsorship from Sutton
Sports Council, Sutton and Cheam Round
Table, The Torch Trophy Trust and
public donations from washing cars and
other fundraising events to fund the
trip. She collected over £2,500 worth
of tennis equipment and construction
company ‘Taylor Woodrow’ kindly
shipped it out to Accra to donate to
the National Coach, Noah Bagerbaseh at
the National Sports College in Winneba,
Ghana.
‘I
really wanted to help. I’ve had
involvement with charities that have
supported developing worlds to develop,
especially Africa, so for me to be
able to help underprivileged
communities through Tennis was so
fulfilling and rewarding. I volunteer
for UK Tennis Charity ‘Tennis For
Free’ which teaches people for free
in public park tennis courts, so by
doing a similar project, I wanted to
go to Africa as an ambassador for them
too’
‘Donating
the equipment made the work of
appealing and collecting all worth it.
When I arrived in Ghana, the athletes
were so friendly and appreciative that
you were there, and were happy to play
with you whatever standard you were.
They have outstanding playing ability,
but they were however working with so
little for the National Youth Squad,
so it was great for us volunteers to
be able to say, ‘here have 400 balls
instead of 40’.
‘Children
in Ghana and Africa in general, have
very limited opportunity to develop
their talents
– aswell because of their
environment, poverty and disease can
destroy their dreams and if they do
overcome this initial hurdle, they
face obstacles of limited equipment,
funding and coaching, they are
desperate to develop these talents to
make a better future for themselves
and their families – so I wanted to
help in someway.
We
gave children shoes to replace the
falling apart ones they were playing
with, clothes and their own rackets to
play with and I donated brand new
rackets, clothing and money as prizes
for a national tournament we organised
for ‘Ghana Tennis Aid’ – it was
huge, attracting players from all over
Ghana, and we were even interviewed on
the Radio!’.Whilst
staying in Accra, Sal also donated a
short tennis set to a local orphanage
and mini rackets for
children to play with on the streets.
But still more can be done to help….charity
‘Right to Dream’ is looking for
help to build a Sports Academy in
Accra to offer scholarships for
Ghanaian children to fulfill they’re
life potential in sport, tennis being
one of them. ‘I
think the Right To Dream vision for a
Sports Academy in Ghana, offering
tennis scholarships is a fantastic
idea. It will help transform the lives
of many children and give them that
opportunity to go for the Ghana Number
1 spot’.
For more info and about helping
Right to Dream by visiting www.righttodream.com
and for Ghana Tennis Aid visit
www.tennisforfree.com
the group on
www.facebook.com
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