Guernsey Press

Events in South Africa shock charity founder

CHARITY founder Nigel Pascoe said he was shocked by some of the things he saw and heard on a recent visit to South Africa.

Published
Goal 50 founder Nigel Pascoe giving encouragement to the players and coaches at the football club the organisation created in South Africa.

‘It was a tough week,’ said Mr Pascoe. who has returned to the island recently after visiting Heideveld near Cape Town, where he was helping in the community.

‘I have seen and heard shocking things – shootings, rape, the abandonment of babies and child trafficking.

‘We try to offer hope to a society that is struggling environmentally, socially and spiritually.’

One such story included the abandonment of a month-old baby. ‘The mother is HIV and left the baby at the hospital,’ said Mr Pascoe.

‘She just ran off. Sadly, that story could be replicated hundreds of times in the Cape Flats.’

Mr Pascoe, who started the local charity, which has its roots in football-based social work in South Africa, spent his time assisting with feeding programmes, speaking at business dinners and local churches, visiting a creche, being involved in football, and supporting a drug rehabilitation centre where Goal 50 provides a daily breakfast for 485 men.

One positive of this trip was Mr Pascoe’s visit to the rehabilitation centre called the Ark, where he spoke to the men staying there.

‘I love going into this place,’ he said. ‘The living conditions are very poor but it is great to offer hope.

‘Often, I talk to them about the Christian faith and encourage them to keep trusting God, even in the circumstances they find themselves in.

‘Many are addicts, gangsters and traffickers. Others are Aids/HIV and have been thrown out of their families because of the embarrassment which is attached to the family.

‘We give them that second chance which they cling onto.’

. For more information on Goal 50, contact email npascoe@cwgsy.net or call 07781 199374.