The alliance has also given a second life to used football kit and more
Chanterlands Girls Football Club (GFC) have only been established for a few years, but already they have a sister club more than 4,000 miles away in Sierra Leone. Chanterlands GFC are based at both Hull YPI and Hymers College, Hull.
What started as a small bunch of girls has rapidly grown into a thriving club, especially after past tournament successes by the England Lionesses, as inspiration. Very recently, the girls at the club donated their old football kits to Adeline School in Freetown, Hull’s twin city and the capital of Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Short of any resources, the school sent a heartwarming video to the girls of Hull, stating how excited they were to be receiving their kits, boots, shinpads and more and that they were going to call their very first girls’ team Adeline Chanterlands Girls.
The idea came from Chanterlands GFC parent Kay Warcup. She said: “When my daughter’s team updated their kit with a new sponsor, I knew I wanted to give the old kits a second life.
“After speaking with the team, I reached out to my contacts in Sierra Leone to explore the opportunity of supporting a girls’ football team in Freetown. We’ve collected kits, shinpads, goalkeeper gloves and other essential equipment.
“We also gathered donations of sports bras, deodorant and sanitary products to reduce barriers to girls taking part in sport. The players here in Hull have thrown their full support behind the project, creating posters and writing letters to send along with the kit.
“They’re excited to form friendships with the girls at Adeline, brought together by a shared love of football.” Richard O’Hara, part of Chanterlands FC committee, said: “We are very proud of the girls at Chanterlands FC.
“When we heard about Kay’s fantastic idea, we were fully behind it as a club. Who would have thought Chanterlands would now be spoken about in Sierra Leone?”
On Saturday (October 25), Francis, of Adeline School, visited some of the girls’ training sessions to receive the kits. Although struck by the cold weather, Francis was incredibly appreciative of the donations and enjoyed answering any questions the girls had about Adeline and Sierra Leone.