Countdown to the 50th Consecutive Donation: No. 26 – Netherlands 28/03/2009

The Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal donated £1000 to Only Friends in Amsterdam. The Ronald McDonald Centre is currently being redeveloped – with 2 football pitches, swimming pool and indoor sports courts all specifically developed for children with disabilities. Our donation will be put towards new sports equipment. You can follow their progress on Facebook.

On the morning of the match, more than 50 footsoldiers travelled by bus to watch the children of the Only Friends club play football.

After the game, there was an invitation into the club house for some chips and a small light refreshment. The children were delighted with the gifts from the footsoldiers – hats, T-shirts, flags, sweeties etc. and of course, the team’s new mascot – Scottie the bear, dressed in full Highland outfit.

Full Story Here…

Everywhere We Go!

Countdown to the 50th Consecutive Donation: No. 25 – Iceland 10/09/2008

Hringurinn (in English: The Ring) is a voluntary women’s organization, more than 100 years old, started originally to give help to sick and poor women and children. About 50 years ago it´s efforts were concentrated on the establishment of a children´s hospital in Iceland. Since then our main goal has been to support the Children’s hospital, including the Children’s mental hospital, and many other activities that concern sick children and treatment of children’s diseases.

The presentation was organised for the afternoon of Match day in Reykjavik.  The British Embassy in Reykjavik were also contacted to let them know about the presentation and with the assistance of Ardis Sigurdardottir, the press and public affairs officer for the Embassy, the TASA group was not only greeted with photographers and a TV crew but also the British ambassador for Iceland plus a representative for the Norwegian Embassy. The end result was that the presentation was covered by Icelandic TV and press giving the Tartan Army some very good publicity into the hearts of the Icelandic people.  Full Story Here…

Everywhere We Go!

Countdown to the 50th Consecutive Donation: No. 24 – Macedonia 06/09/2008

The Macedonia donation was driven by Tartan Skopje with the TASA donation of £1000 helping to make up the total donation of £12,000. These funds were split between two charities in Skopje and the two presentations took place on the Friday afternoon and Saturday morning before the match.

1. The Association for protection of children rights manages the Snezana day-care centre and currently works with two volunteers who manage all activities in the centre and provide for about 30 children. The children have otherwise been left on the streets begging and have not been taken care of by their parents for many different reasons.  The day-care centre succeeded to initiate and maintain contact with the parents who gave consent for the children to spend the day in the centre. Besides meeting the basic needs – food, hygiene & health checks the children also do educational activities, sports and other outdoor activities, music and art workshops, have guests and make visits.

2. The institution for rehabilitation of children and young people “Topaansko Pole” is a public institution working on social services, which enables observation, rehabilitation and correctional treatment, education and vocational training, as well as cultural, entertaining, sports and other activities for children with severe mental disability.

The overall process is run by an expert team and is broken up into several units, education unit, vocational training unit, adult day-care centre, day-care centre “Smile” for children aged 18 years or less with moderate and severe mental disability and a boarding school with a kitchen.  The activities are managed depending on the needs and the psychological and physical abilities of its beneficiaries – persons with moderate and severe mental disability.

120 beneficiaries are treated there, out of which 60 are with boarding accommodation.  Full Story Here…

Everywhere We Go!

Countdown to the 50th Consecutive Donation: No. 23 – Czech Republic 30/05/2008

The Klicek Foundation aims to improve the support, help and care for seriously sick children and their families both in hospital and at home. Their work involves the setting up of a hospice in the country to give kids a better surrounding than the hospital to aid their recovery. Alas some poor kids will also spend their last days there.


Here’s a bit from their own website which puts it all in perspective:
“Modern medicine, despite all its achievements and efforts, is not always able to save the life of a gravely sick child. Such a situation, if it occurs, is extremely difficult and demanding for both the child and his family. Having been discharged from hospital, they return home – and they have to live with the awareness of how limited the earthly time of their child is.”  Full Story Here…

Everywhere We Go!