Tottenham Hotspur teams up with SOS Children
27/03/2007
SOS Children is delighted to announce a new partnership with Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur FC.
The partnership, which is linked to SOS Children's 2006 World Cup campaign, will see Tottenham supporting the new SOS Children’s Village in Rustenburg, South Africa. Tottenham has come up with the innovative idea of using monies received from players’ fines to support the charity. These funds will be used to cover the running costs of the ‘Spurs’ family home in the new SOS Children’s Village as well as support a variety of community development projects in and around Rustenburg.
Club officials and Spurs legend Gary Mabbutt recently visited the new village, where they met SOS workers and the first children to have found a new home with SOS Children.
Speaking during the visit, Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy said, “We are delighted to be taking the first steps in what we know will be a hugely beneficial project for the local community. It represents a responsible use of players’ fines and will also be fully underwritten by the Club.”
“We have had a massive supporter base in South Africa ever since our success in the 1960s and still enjoy an affinity with the country where we were made to feel so welcome on our 2003 pre-season tour. We look forward to becoming an important part of life for hundreds of children and young people.”
Former club captain and England international Gary Mabbutt agreed, “I am impressed with the novel thinking behind using the players’ fines for this good cause and it is great to see the club fully supporting SOS Children’s Villages. The players have greeted this news enthusiastically and are keen to give it their support.”
Rustenburg is one of the many villages that follows SOS' new Solid, Modest and Integrated approach to providing orphaned and abandoned children with long-term family care. We follow this philosophy to try and ensure that children in our care are not separately identified as orphans but are able to grow up fully integrated in the local community. The village is part of a new housing development in one of the middle class areas of Rustenburg, in the main mining belt of the North West Province. The village provides children with a new home, where they live with their SOS mother and family in a regular street and attend local schools.
Andrew Cates, Chief Executive of SOS Children, was also particularly pleased by the partnership, “It's fantastic that a football club like Tottenham Hotspur has made a commitment to helping some of the world’s most vulnerable children, particularly in their original use of the players' fines. We look forward to working with the club to create some real improvements to children’s lives ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.”
We’ll be bringing you all the latest news regarding this exciting new partnership with Tottenham Hotspur, so watch this space for developments!
Relevant Countries: South Africa.