We recently partnered with our Clubs Chaplain Mike Pirie, and worked with Empathy International, to send our old unused strips to Laos. There they will be used by the young people throughout the villages of Laos.
Our Chief Executive, Derek Allison, commented ” When we heard about the great work that Empathy International does and the current situation the children of Laos are in we all wanted to do whatever we could to bring a little bit of joy to their lives. Most of the young people have never owned a football strip never mind heard of Falkirk FC. We are proud to welcome these young people to the “Falkirk Family”.
The founder and director of Empathy International Andrew Hepburn had this to say:
“I really want to sincerely thank the Falkirk Foundation for so kindly donated these Falkirk FC football kits to the rural poor youths in Laos SE Asia. When Mike Pirie contacted me to let us know the good news, I couldn’t quite believe it. Laos now is being hit hard with Covid with families struggling for rice so to receive a gift like this will blew them away, for many it was their 1st football top so I know they will cherish it.”
To get there the strips went on quite a journey, travelling through France, India, China, Vietnam & Thailand!
To find out more about Empathy International, head to their website: https://empathyinternational.org.uk/
The first photo is one of the girls who has had a very hard life, this is her when they first found her after her father died in the jungle with a disease, with the help of Empathy International she was looked after and the second photo is her now.
In the video they say “SaBaiDee” which means hello, then they say “thank you very much”