Hawks are about to donate strips/ balls and tracksuits to this worthwhile cause.

Sos IRB Kit Aid
Is simply a non profit making charity founded by a rugby mad dad (John Broadfoot) who saw for himself the plight of Romanian youngsters during a school rugby tour to Romania . The sight of a smiling Romanian eight year old boy running with the ball under one arm whilst he used the other to hold up his shorts made him want to do something about it.

From the experience of his own rugby sons he knew there were several pairs of boots and shirts lying around doing nothing. So to test out the potential John collected kit from just ten schools to see how much kit might be available on a wider scale. The test was an outstanding success both in terms of quantity and quality of kit donated and John persuaded the International Rugby Board to endorse and fund its expansion to 200+ UK schools. The intention eventually is to have 2000+ UK schools/clubs on board distributing kit throughout the world whether it be townships in South Africa, emerging countries like India/Chile or inner city rugby in London or Cardiff.

The short term aspirations are to quadruple the number of youngsters playing rugby in Romania within the next 2 to 3 years by introducing rugby as a core sport in schools in rugby mad Romania. Hopefully Romania will become part of the Seven Nations Tournament in time.

All participating schools/clubs have to do is organise a collection day once a year(aided by centrally produced posters and leaflets), let SOS know when the kit is ready for collection AND THAT'S IT (until next year of course). Remember every year kids keep growing out of their kit so there is a never ending supply. Based on the 10 school project we estimate some £500,000 - £750,000 replacement value of kit is available for collection every year ! There is so little cost involved in collecting this kit, combined with so much goodwill in the rugby community that SOS should become massive in years to come - we simply need you to come on board and join us!
MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW

This article was originally posted on 21-Apr-2008, 21:22 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 21-Apr-2008, 21:34.