Wanderers' Community Cohesion Spreads To Malawi

FRIENDS OF Mulanje Orphans, (FOMO) a UK based charity, providing day care in Malawi, Africa for some 4,000 orphaned children, makes a giant leap in raising awareness of the plight of its orphans and in providing them with football training.

On Friday 25 May, two football coaches will spend two weeks training the 10 junior and 10 senior orphan football teams. The first of these coaches is Abdul Basit who is the Community Cohesion Officer for Bolton Wanderers Football Club and has a vast amount of experience in football coaching. Over the years he has done a lot of voluntary coaching as well as working for Oldham Athletic and Manchester F.A.

Abdul said:

"I cant wait to get out there and help the people of Malawi in both a footballing capacity as well as helping to feed and clothe them. It will be a life changing and heart warming experience".

The coaches will be joined by footballing legend Viv Anderson, who appeared for England 30 times between 1978 and 1988, scoring 2 goals. The Malawian National Team will pay a visit between their forthcoming matches to show the orphans their footballing skills and provide a massive boost to them.

All the action will be filmed by Granada for a programme to air 10th July at 7.30pm on ITV1.

Series Producer Gerrie Byrne said:

"The sheer scale of the FOMO operation inspired by one woman and sustained by a handful of volunteers in Lancashire is an inspiring tale for our viewers. We hope to bring a first-hand account of how lives in Malawi have been so massively changed by the support they've attracted."

The FA has supported this project providing FA Ambassador Viv Anderson, kit donations and the Malawi National Team connection.

Malawi, a country whereby 1 in 7 suffer from HIV/Aids is one of The FA's UEFA-CAF Meridian Project Partners, they already support and work in Malawi as part of their International Development Programme, assisting with the development of football in Africa.

FOMO volunteer Dave Armstrong, said

"This project will help to raise the profile of FOMO and highlight to the North West people the problems faced by Malawian orphans, but also it gives those orphans so much hope to know that people from the UK have given their time and effort to help them improve not only their footballing skills, but their lives. This visit by footballers and coaches will be in their minds forever".