A big-hearted English couple are putting magic in the boots of an African football team - and have saved them from going bust.
Crispin Mason-Jones and his wife Dr Ellie Bond have raised tens of thousands of pounds to save a sports club in the remote community of Mfuwe in Zambia.
They are helping to transform the lives of scores of children through the kindness of strangers back home on Tyneside.
Retired architect Crispin, 60, of Newcastle, was inspired after travelling to Africa earlier this year.
His wife of 32 years Ellie was working as the ‘Valley Doctor’ in the beautiful surroundings of the South Luangwa National Park.
While delivering frontline medical care on sabbatical from her role as a Palliative Care Specialist in the North east, artist Pam Guhrs Carr told her how their local sports club was going to the wall.
Ellie and Crispin vowed to save it.
Their team work since has secured the future not only of the senior team dubbed ‘The Mfuwe Mags’ - in honour of Newcastle United - but a new girls’ team and a successful netball side.
The Mirror joined Crispin as he delivered £1,000 worth of black-and-white strips and 21 pairs of junior football boots to the under-15 side.
They previously played barefoot on the hard, uneven Yosefe Secondary School footy pitch.
Wide-eyed 14-year-old Bished Njolovu gave a smile bright enough to light up Wembley.
“It feels good,” he said as he tried on his brand new £40 Adidas Goletto.
“This is my first ever pair of boots.”
He joked: “I supported Man Utd, my team will be Newcastle Utd now.”
His dad Godbish Njolovu, 50, has spent years working as an artist with Pam’s stART Foundation to help the club.
He watched proudly as Patrick Chitlikenu led the team in a round of applause for Crispin.
The kit presentation ceremony took place in the heat of the African sun, 7,500 miles from Tyneside.
Patrick, 40, senior team manager for the past five years, explained how ‘Geordie Aid’ had saved the day.
“We could not afford transport to our games because they were so far away,” he said.
“We would walk the streets asking for money, but it was very expensive for the bus and fuel.
“Sometimes we travel four hours there and four hours back which is very difficult.
“Now we are guaranteed to get to all our games and have the new kit as well.
“We have a very talented team, players who have had trials for the national team at junior level.
“This club is a platform for everything.
“If we were not here most of the boys and girls would have nothing to do and they could end up on beers and illicit spirits.
“Through football they keep fit and have something to fill their lives.”
He added: “This is a dream come true, a light which has shone in the darkness thanks to the people from England.
“They have chosen to help this team in Africa out of all the other places throughout the world.
“I feel like we are the luckiest team alive. Now all the villagers come to watch us - we are really excited, happy and grateful.”
Pledges from North east businesses have safeguarded the future of the ‘Mfuwe Mags’ for the next three years.
Now come the long term plans for the future, a new playing surface,
youth development and the women’s team.
Crispin told the youngsters as they tried on their new strips: “I hope you have as much enjoyment from football as I have always had.
“Our sponsors from Newcastle wanted to support women’s football and asked if there was a women’s team.
“So we are all very happy that there is one now.”
To the young girls in the crowd, he added: “England’s women’s team are now European champions, and Zambia’s women are in the next World Cup.
“It feels right that we have a women’s team now in Mfuwe.”
Afterwards, he told the Mirror: “I had tears in my eyes when they were presented with the first set of strips. It does mean a lot to me.”
For Zambian-born Ellie, 56, on the frontline throughout lockdown in England, the work in her native land was a journey back to her roots.
“It is a magical place,” she said.
“The post of Valley Doctor gives a high standard of medical care funded by the Luangwa Safari Association.
“I was working in the rural clinics where we did everything from child vaccinations to crocodile bites.
“We did mums’ outreach programmes to talk about sex education.
“I loved it, there were no holds barred with the questions - and we could see 200-250 children in one visit.”
She added: “We went for dinner with Pam, she told us about the work she did with the sports’ teams and the threat to that.
“It’s where this all began.”
Thanks to the generosity of his Geordie backers - another £1200 was raised from friends and family at their wedding anniversary bash - the charity is now also supporting Project Luangwa.
Their CEO Ian Macallan (c), who is originally from Durham, is using tablets to provide lessons at remote bush schools.
They are delivered in a solar powered Information and Communication Technology classroom built into a shipping container.
“Before they had zero resources,” he said. “Now they have a class size of 30-32 pupils using tablets which carry the entire Zambian curriculum.
“Under normal circumstances, the class size would have been 96
children to one teacher.”
Meanwhile Mfuwe Mags team captain Elvis Sakala, 18, and club secretary Thomas Njobvu can make plans for the future.
Elvis, who broke his ankle in a season opener, said: “I used to encourage the players to never give up.
“That something good would come one day, that we could keep on playing.
“Then Crispin arrived. I go to church, I believe in salvation.”
Thomas is now looking at transport for the 80 children in the u-15,
u-17, women’s football and netball teams.
“We have some who are in villages 25km away,” he says. “Sometimes they walk, sometimes they have to get here by bike.
“Transport to away games was the major issue, and we had players without kit, players without boots.
“Now we can improve their talent, and help to give them a chance in life.”
- Anyone able to help can visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/start-art
