The Saul Hull Under 13 Cup kicked off this weekend! Played in memory of one of GAFFER’s greatest supporters who sadly passed in 2008. The cup builds on the enthusiasm developed in the recent youth tournaments and will end with the brightest young players being taken on tour!

The tournament takes eight village teams of Under 13 year olds who play in groups before the group winners meet in the finals! The teams train daily with their GAFFER trained coach to ensure that the young players have the guidance required to develop. The first weekend saw Marungu U13 defeat Itinyi 3 – 0 and the defending champions Mkamenyi get off to a flying start with a 4 – 1 victory over Sasenyi!

After six months of great football, the best of GAFFER's youth did battle to lift the Andrew Murch Memorial Shield! In a hard fought game, Makina Village reigned supreme!

This competition has been brilliantly contested by every village and has seen the standard of youth football improve exponentially. Coaches have been assigned by GAFFER to coach the young players and the enthusiasm of the guys has been commendable.

The Andrew Murch Memorial Trophy is played in remembrance of a young Brit who tragically passed away in 2007. His family have kindly supported GAFFER with footballs that will allow young men in Kenya to enjoy the sport that Andrew lived for.

James has been hard at work for GAFFER visitng the schools and villages we work with. The welcome has been amazing and the kids are all still very active and playing lots of football after school! The men's teams are now hard at work also training for the new league. Fixtures lists are going out today and we have lots of exciting times ahead!

Keep checking back here soon for details of how the league and the youth training is continueing. We are also soon to be putting video content on the site featuring matches from the league!

The massive increase in the population living in and around the villages GAFFER works with has strained the natural resources to breaking point. A huge percentage of the indigenous trees have been cut down to fuel the illegal charcoal trade. Deforestation leads to soil erosion and local climatic change making self-sufficient farming even more challenging.

Planting trees is relatively easy but ensuring they survive the hostile conditions long enough to reach maturity is more of a challenge. So GAFFER had an ingenious idea! Get the school kids to plant and look after the trees for three years in return for lots of sports at school! This also ensures the trees will be protected from ever being chopped up and burnt for charcoal.

GAFFER sources the indigenous saplings from Wildlife Works and educates the children in effective irrigation and protection from pesky goats who eat everything they see! These kids are from Rukanga and Kiteghe Primary schools.

So far we have planted 447 trees! A big THANK YOU to Wildlife Works for all the education and support!

"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the second best time is now..."

UPDATES!

10/04/07 - Rewards for the best trees!

The school children who care for the trees are periodically visited by GAFFER and the regional Forestry Officer. The trees that are best cared for and have the most effective anti-goat protection are rewarded with certificates and school exercise books.