Olympic trip beckons for intrepid Littlehampton and Angmering trio

INTREPID sports students from Littlehampton and Angmering will be helping children in one of the world’s most deprived slums next year.

Sophie Isaacs and Jess Roberts, from The Angmering School, along with Rebecca Groves-Excell, from The Littlehampton Academy, will be joining a select band of student sports leaders, from across the south, who will be making the trip to Kenya, in April.

The students, aged between 15 and 17, will be spending eight days encouraginging children from the city of Kibera, which is the second largest slum in Africa, to become involved in sports as part of the London 2012 Olympic legacy.

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Their trip has been set up by the Southern Area Sports Partnership, which runs the Leadership Academy scheme, of which all three students are a part.

The sporting teens will have to plan, organise and run an Olympic-based event which will take place at the end of the trip.

Rebecca, 17, who has been out to Africa as a volunteer once before, said: “All the children out there are so happy.

“You give so much to them all and you get even more back. It’s so rewarding.

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“They appreciate what we are doing for them, so much more than people from this country would.”

The group will work with about 500 children aged between five and 16 in the slum area, which was featured on the BBC Comic Relief programme, Famous, Rich & in the Slums, last year.

They will also train a group of adult football coaches in how to develop fitness and skills and how to organise training sessions and competitions.

The school, Spurgeon’s Academy, backs onto a railway line and rubbish dump that runs through the slum. People live in extremely small shacks, with corrugated roofs held down by rocks placed on top.

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There are open sewers throughout the slum and more than two million people are crammed into an area of approximately one square mile. Poverty is rife and living conditions are incredibly basic.

All the students have to raise a minimum of £1,500 to finance the trip.

They are also asked to raise more money, to help the slum school.

Anyone wishing to donate should contact Ali Groves at [email protected] or 01903 778328.

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