A470  Ffansin Ar-Lein Pel Droed Cymru ·  On-Line Welsh Football Fanzine    

In November a group of Welsh fans travelled to Azerbaijan determined to do more than cheer on Sparky's boys and sample the local vodka!
A conversation had arisen on the bus from Helsinki to Valkeakoski to watch the Wales under21s take on their Finish counterparts and it was decided that we wanted "... to do something".

That 'something' was to visit and take gifts to some of Baku's many orphanages, so before setting off Neil Dymock, Dylan Llewelyn and Gary Pritchard set about contacting various charities based in Azerbaijan.

The city of Baku has more than 50 orphanages and is home to over 8,000 orphans. The staggering number of orphans is mainly down to the recent war with Armenia but poverty also plays a large part -  64% of Azeris live below the poverty line according to a recent UN report.
 
We managed to make contact with three seperate charities and arranged to visit them during our four day stay in Baku.

Farid Talebov of the charity United Aid For Azerbaijan (UAFA) admits to being more than a little surprised to have been contacted by the Welsh fans.
”Some British fans are famous in Azerbaijan for the wrong reasons,” he said, 
"So we were amazed - but delighted - when the Welsh supporters offered to help us.”

UAFA provides sports therapy for children in some of Baku’s many orphanages.
Through UAFA the fans visited Orphanage 16 and Orphanage 1 where the donation of three football kits and a dozen footballs was extremely welcome.

So welcome, in fact, that an impromptu football match ensued with the Azeris crushing the Welsh football fans by a cricket score - mind you we did have Neil Dymock in goal and our 'star striker' was Ade Colley!!

Clydach Junior Football Club, Manselton Primary School, Swansea - whose most famous former pupil is John Charles and Valley Juniors Football Club on Anglesey, had kindly donated the football kits to the appeal.

UAFA also benefited from a donation of $400 which Farid Talebov said would go towards helping the children compete in the Azerbaijan Special Olympics – an athletic competition which encourages children and adults with and without disabilities to mix together and compete.

More than one million athletes in 150 countries participate in Special Olympics, which is officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee.

Through the Azerbaijan Volunteers Union (AVU) we visited Orphanage 3 in the Khatai District of Baku.

Here we were treated to a musical performance by some of the children with a feast of traditional songs and dances - and we even joined in a traditional Azeri dance (or at least some of us did - Chester Hartley cried off with an imaginary groin injury!!)

Before leaving we distributed T-shirts, toothbrushes, notepads and duffle bags, kindly donated by the S4C children’s programme ‘Uned 5’ as well as numerous soft toys, which many of the 150 travelling fans had brought with them.

This led to yet another impromptu football match, although I suspect it was more to do with being able to bunk off lessons than wanting to display their footballing prowess!!

We were also able to donate $750 for the dance troupe to purchase traditional costumes in order to compete in an international dance competition in Moscow, Russia.

The principal of the orphanage was delighted to be able to accept the money saying that they had priced the costumes and received a quote of approximately $550 which she said was beyond the budget of the orphanage.

”I am delighted to be able to accept the donation,” she said.

“The children will be overjoyed by the news, I can not tell you how happy they will be,” she added.

The AVU, which also works on social projects with displaced persons throughout Azerbaijan were given $400 towards their work with refugees of the recent war with Armenia.


The third charity to receive a donation was LOTOS - The Azerbaijan Union of Disabled People's Organisation.

LOTOS works with, and on behalf of, people with disabilities by trying to raise public awareness on disability and make it possible to fully integrate disabled people of all ages into society.

Dylan Llewleyn had the honour of presenting a cheque for $750 to Elena Taranova, the Paralympic rifle shooting Gold medallist at the Sydney Olympics - it's not everyday you get to meet an Olympic champion you know!

Fundraising

Much of the fundraising took place during the trip with over $400 being raised during the flight to Baku by selling raffle tickets for the numerous prizes donated.

Thanks to Maralyn Olsen, who harried and hassled a host of football clubs, we had a signed Welsh football shirt and shorts and a signed Wrexham shirt  amongst the many prizes raffled during ‘Welsh Night’ at the Lancaster Gate Pub in Baku which saw a further $900 added to the appeal fund. - as well as over 20 litres of vodka being sold behind the bar!

The 1927 Club (London based Cardiff City Supporters’ Club) raised over £700 before travelling to Azerbaijan by raffling a signed Cardiff City shirt and a pair of VIP tickets to Ninian Park

Donations

The following groups and individuals helped contribute to the appeal fund and we are extremely grateful to them for their kindness:

(in alphabetical order)
1927 Club (Cardiff City Supporters’ Club, London)
Allsports
Ar Y Marc - BBC Radio Cymru
Aston Villa FC
ASC Sports, Caernarfon
Bryn Law (Sky Sports)
Cardiff City FC
Clydach Juniors FC
Dave Shaw - Lancaster Gate Pub, Baku
Dragon Has Landed Fanzine
FAW
Football365 Website
John Charles
Manic Street Preachers
Mansleton Primary School, Swansea
Matthew Jones & Leicester City FC
Merthyr Tydfil FC
Nottingham Forest FC
Peter Jones (Shropshire Reds)
Robert Page & Sheffield United FC
Ryan Giggs
Sam Hamman
Soccer First
Subside Sports
Super Furry Animals
Swansea City FC
Taffs Well FC
Tim Hartley
Uned 5 - Antena
Valley Juniors FC
Wrexham FC

The Future

We have now registered with the charities comission under the name, Gôl and hope to strengthen the links created with the Azeri charities.

One of the options being explored is the possibility of funding a visit to the Llangollen International Eisteddfod for the dance troupe from Orphanage 3.

We also hope to be able to carry out a similar appeal when Wales travel to Belgrade to play Yugoslavia in April, 2003.



Anyone who wishes to help with Gôl in anyway, please feel free to contact us at A470  and we will pass on your details.

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