As part of a successful Easter Cricket and Football tour to South Africa, the School’s pupils and parents have donated hundreds of items of John Lyon sports kit to some of Cape Town’s most vulnerable children.

More than 60 kilograms of football boots, shorts and socks, along with cricket whites and various pieces of equipment were packed into a dozen huge bags and taken on the flight from London.

All the donated items, which included a range of club and national shirts, have been given to The Message Trust, a UK based Christian Charity which has worked in South Africa since 2014, and is dedicated to improving the lives of young people through work in schools, prisons and communities.

Sarah Hockley of The Message Trust describes one of the projects in Cape Town, where the John Lyon sports kit been received.

“One of the projects we have the privilege of working with is Eden Nyanga. Eden is an initiative of The Message where our people move into the most deprived areas and help to make change from the inside out. It has high deprivation, high crime rates, and high gang and murder rates.

“One of the projects run by Eden Nyanga is a football project. A man called Mkhululi (MK for short) we met whilst in prison, had his life turned around. And even before he was released, he had a vision to run a football project in his community, recognising that it was the lack of a father figure in his life that led to his involvement with gangs and crime. Seven years later, his vision has become a reality as part of Eden Nyanga.

“Through the new football project, MK is mentoring 16 boys, sharing his faith with them and planning to start regular Bible studies and life skills training. But this is growing with more young lads joining every week.

“It is here that your kind and generous donation will and already has made all the difference”