News - October 2007

Cambodian orphanage mission a success for Leamington teenagers

06/10/2007 17:17:40

A group of Leamington teenagers who spent the summer working at an orphanage and a school in Cambodia, partly sponsored by Brian Holt, say the experience was heartbreaking yet rewarding.

The dozen 16 and 17 year olds from The Kingsley School spent four weeks of the summer helping the children and carrying out building work at the orphanage and school in Kirirom, 86 km from Phnom Pehn.

They were sponsored by a number of local companies – with the major sponsor, Brian Holt, funding building materials to help improve the building housing the youngsters – some of whom were abandoned at only a few days old by mothers who could not afford to keep them.

Julie Philpot, manager of the Kenilworth branch of Brian Holt explained: “This is such a heartrending tale. We often fail to appreciate in our comfortable relatively affluent lives just how terrible the conditions are for many people across the world. It’s amazing that girls like Rhiannon and Katy wanted to give up their summer to go and do what they could to help make a real difference to the lives of these children. We were delighted to be able to sponsor them and play a small part in making this happen.”

One of the team, 17-year-old Rhiannon Marshall, explained: “We spent the money donated by Brian Holt on bricks, tiles, cement, sand, gravel and flower seeds and extended and improved the orphanage to make it look more friendly and homely. We made a path going up to the school as during the rainy season the ground gets really flooded.

“The work was incredibly rewarding and satisfying. It was such an amazing experience. It really was worthwhile just knowing how much you are helping the children's lives. When the times got a little tense and the temperatures reached 45 degrees celsius in the shade, just thinking about how we were helping the children really motivated us.

“Karen, the owner of the orphanage, told us that the reason they had quite a lot of babies was that they get them straight from the hospital, as the hospital has a cot where mothers who have just given birth can put their babies in there and leave them in the hospital. This is done as so many babies get abandoned due to the families being so poor, they can't afford to look after them.”

Schools programme will help youngsters stay healthy

01/10/2007 15:20:07

Leamington rugby club and sport loving estate agency Brian Holt have teamed up to launch a year-long schools programme aimed at helping youngsters to exercise more, lead healthier lives.

The programme, to be launched next week, will see 22 junior and five senior schools from Leamington and Warwick taking part in a range of sporting activities at the club’s ground in Kenilworth Road.

The Leamington RFC Schools Programme kicks off on October 10 with the first of four matches to be held during the month involving students from Aylesford, Campion, Myton and Trinity Schools.

Other events throughout the coming academic year include a tag rugby tournament for juniors later in the season involving two to three hundred players and a smaller schools tournament just before the club’s annual bonfire night gathering.

A smaller version of the programme began life back in 2000 and its popularity has seen the scheme expand from just six schools to the 22 who have expressed an interest for the 2007 -08 season.

This is the first year Brian Holt, who have been sponsors of the club for a number of years, has been involved in the project.

“This is part of our campaign to become more involved in the community and help our young people, ” explained MD Brian Holt. “A number of our staff are keen rugby players – or were before they became far too elderly to run around wrestling people to the ground – and now watch sedately from the sidelines. But our enthusiasm for the sport, the physical exercise, the bonhomie and the friendship which are forged have not waned even if our hair has.

“With the current awareness of rising obesity in children, the increasing number of youngsters who don’t get enough exercise because of fears of letting them play outside and the rise in consumption of junk food we think it’s even more important to ensure our young people are getting fit both for now and for the future. We’d like to help them use their energy on the rugby field instead of on the streets.

“ We hope it will help provide them with life skills, an understanding of teamwork and an ability to interact happily with a range of people from other walks of life. Rugby isn’t just about cauliflower ears. It provides a good deal of life skills too.”

Brian Holt has kicked off the funding with £1,500 to provide various pieces of equipment and kit and will donate a percentage of profits from all homes sold by members or their contacts to the coffers.

The funding is to be matched through the government’s Sportsmatch funding scheme.

Club schools programme spokesman Paul Ford added: “We want to run this programme to put something back into the community as well as encouraging younger players to join the minis and juniors. Before the scheme began seven years ago very few schools in the area, particularly the juniors, played rugby, partly because of the physical nature of the game. We’ve seen a huge rise in the number of schools now playing, especially since the introduction of tag - non-contact – rugby, which puts a lot of parents’ minds at rest.”

This is the latest in a series of community initiatives for Brian Holt. Others schemes include a campaign to raise £2,000 for books for the Priorsfield School library in Kenilworth and funding building materials for a group of Kingsley school teenagers carrying out improvement work at an orphanage in Cambodia.