Charity teams kick off to help refugee charity Care4Calais

Manchester-based refugees recently enjoyed a charity football match against local Tameside club, Infinity Initiatives FC.

The football match, described as ‘a real community thing’, was organised between the local club (who focus on raising awareness for men’s mental health) and Care4Calais, which is a volunteer-run charity supporting refugees living in the UK, Northern France and Belgium.

There are around 7,000 refugees that they support across our region, the main focus to provide warm clothing, bedding, food and medical assistance to refugees as well as providing social support and interaction, including language lessons, sports and music workshops.

The recent charity match was put together as part of an ongoing initiative to extend a hand of friendship to the refugees and promote community cohesion and integration, as well as demonstrating that compassion and care.

Care4Calais South Manchester celebrated an 8-4 victory on the day.

Maddy Summerfield, who has been helping to co-manage Care4Calais across Manchester and Cheshire for more than two years now, said: “This is the first time that we’ve arranged a game against a team from the community as opposed to a team of other refugees.

“It was so great, the team we played (Infinity Initiative FC) were absolutely fantastic. They were all for it, they were really lovely and welcoming – they clapped us on and off and they came and said thank you to everyone at the end.

“The event was organised because we have a lot of refugees who enjoy football.

“We usually just play in the hotel car park so it was a bit of a step up, even if it was a muddy field in Audenshaw. For us – that was amazing.

“As a charity, it’s important that refugees see that there is this whole community of people that are out there supporting them and it gives them an opportunity as well to show off their football skills and have some fun and play together.

“I want to say a huge thank you to the other team, who provided the pitch and the ref. We get a lot of animosity and resistance sometimes from people because of what we do, but Infinity Initiatives FC is a lovely club set up to support mental health in the community. The fact that they were actually so willing to extend that support to the mental health of the refugees was wonderful to see.

“It was fantastic for us; we left with players from both teams asking when we could do it again and when the rematch is - and that’s just lovely. I got so many nice messages from refugees saying thank you to everybody and it just makes it all really worth it.”

One refugee, who had taken part in the match, sent a message saying ‘Thank you, today was the most fun we have had. You are all beautiful souls and kind’.

It wasn’t just the support of the opposing team that made a real difference with others rallying round too.

The charity 500 Acts of Kindness helped to provide funds for socks (which were provided by FC United), boots and shin pads.

Oldham Football Club also provided full kit for all of their players and Tameside Rotary funded a local lady to make some cakes and sandwiches for the day.

Matthew Quinn, from Infinity Initiatives, said: "It was a great day for everyone. Both charities are now linking up together and going to make it a repeat fixture throughout the season, throughout the year probably.

"We'll hopefully keep on making it a bigger event as we go forwards and raise more money for our charity and theirs."