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BREAKING NEWS

The World Cup comes to Norfolk!

Bring out your flags and tune up your trumpets – or vuvuzela’s if you’re supporting South African football - as Norfolk kicks-off its 2010 FIFA World Cup experience early.

Local organisation Rainbow Nations is bringing South African football captain and Portsmouth midfielder Aaron Mokoena to its ‘World Cup Day’ in Norfolk on Wednesday, April 21. At County Hall, a host of local UK dignitaries will meet and greet high ranking South African officials and dignitaries from the South African High Commission, The International Marketing Council of South Africa and other high profile South African organisations.

After a lunch hosted by Norfolk County Council, a World Cup celebration will commence at Hellesdon High School in Norwich. School pupils will represent the 32 nations competing in the World Cup, which begins on June 11 in Johannesburg.

Twenty schools that have supported the Rainbow Nations initiative of building bridges through sport and their teams will get a chance to show what they can do on the field under the auspices of the Norfolk FA – and Aaron Mokoena. There will be an exciting array of flag fountains and the World Cup day will be launched with a spectacular performance for the opening ceremony by Passion Productions.

Rainbow Nations founder, Amalia Hendricks, a South African who has settled in Norfolk, says the event is part of a greater project: to use global sporting events like the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 London Olympics to build bridges between communities.

The World Cup Day is intended to build stronger links between Norfolk and Gauteng province in South Africa, home to both Johannesburg and Soweto. And with the support of local businesses, Rainbow Nations intends to take seven teams of seven young people from Norfolk to South Africa to share a variety of opportunities, including the excitement of the World Cup. They will be hosted by Rainbow Nations South Africa and government and public sector agencies. Norfolk Motor Group is the first company to pledge their support by sponsoring a team of 7 students to go the world cup. Rainbow Nations UK is appealing to six companies to follow Norfolk Motor Group’s lead.

The second phase of building understanding and empathy through sport will be when the London Olympics takes place in 2010 and a similar number of people from Gauteng communities will be invited to Norfolk to join a number of activities and experience the Olympics too.

The young people have also been engaged in various learning opportunities whilst the British Council in Johannesburg is in the process of connecting classrooms across the two nations through their Global Gateway initiative. Hendricks says: “At a time when the United Kingdom is welcoming an array of new communities to its shores, there are clear parallels between Norfolk’s endeavours to accommodate social change and the struggle for social integration that is fundamental to South Africa’s current nation-building process.”

Contact details:-
For further information about the Rainbow Nations Through Sport project please contact:
For Education enquiries: Alastair Ogle at Hellesdon 01603 424711
For Media enquiries: Yvette Chivers at NE-Excuse 07775435534
For General project enquiries: Amalia Hendricks at Rainbow Nations 07548513153 or amalia@rainbownations.co.uk

Rainbow Nations was founded by South African, Amalia Hendricks in Norwich, United Kingdom as a social enterprise, officially registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC). This means that Rainbow Nations is established to trade for the community good.

Rainbow Nations’ core activity is teaching global dimension and citizenship education in schools. We have become known as experts in personal and life skills, diversity issues, community cohesion and social inclusion.

Rainbow Nations Through Sport

The FIFA World Cup 2010 – South Africa

If you are planning for a year, sow rice
If you are planning for a decade, plant trees
If you are planning for a lifetime, educate people
(Chinese Proverb – Unknown)

Vision:

Our vision is to take a delegation of young people from Norfolk schools, Study Centres and PfS (Playing for Success) and members of the Norfolk community to participate in a range of sharing and learning opportunities that use the FIFA World Cup in 2010 as the motivation and inspiration to acquire new skills, establish friendships and encourage collaboration between Norfolk and South Africa.

Aim:

Our aim is to demonstrate that we, in ourselves, are a welcoming, united, inter-connected, inter-dependant community, engaging in a wider world through Sport, by collaborating with Education, Private, Public and Third Sectors.

Objectives:

1. Education
For young people to share in an engaging educational experience abroad through Sport.
To explore ways of widening the PfS (Playing for Success) model using football and sport as the power to inspire young people.
To encourage Norfolk students to engage with and learn from young people in South Africa through exciting and motivational approaches to education that has as a central theme the FIFA World Cup 2010.

2. Professional Exchange
To have a professional exchange and engagement programme of teachers, coaches, sportsmen/women, professionals, business people, academics etc

3. Community
To build and strengthen Norfolk Community pride and unity through Sport.
To provide an opportunity to express our own “British-ness” and to encourage the acceptance, tolerance and understanding of other cultures.

4. National Pride
To be a part of an international sporting event that promotes ‘Global Camaraderie’…… though Sport

Events, publicity and awareness of this project will be soon to commence throughout Norfolk... we encourage you to keep abreast with the developments using the web contact form.

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