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Henry teaches the children how to play hockey.

Henry Whittaker and Craig Woolass are setting up a company called Athena ETS (Explore, Travel & Safety) where they can share their skills and knowledge in providing travel safety training and advice for young travellers. In addition, they will provide bespoke adventurous activities with a focus on putting something back into communities. This inspired them to visit the remote mountainous village of Semongkong in Lesotho, where Sentebale supports an orphanage for 83 children.

Giant Connect 4 is a real hit.

Henry and Craig arrived overloaded with generous presents (so much so that they had a very difficult time at customs despite having an approval letter!) including a wide variety of sports kit and equipment including football goals, basketball hoops, cricket sets, skipping ropes, hockey sticks, team bibs, footballs and many other sports items. Patrick and Tara who run the Methodist Children's Centre were delighted to receive these on behalf of all the children and arranged for them to be distributed between the orphanage and the local primary school, youth centre and high school.

Craig hands out new balls.

At each of these places Henry and Craig taught the children how to use the equipment in the different games; hockey was the most unusual as was totally unfamiliar to the children. In addition to playing with the children, they also trained the local staff and sports teachers. This will ensure that the equipment can be used for a long time and the skills taught can continue to be passed on within the community.

Henry awards a t shirt as a prize.

Henry said “This was an extremely humbling and heart-warming experience and we were very grateful to receive the honour of having the children sing to us as a gesture of their thanks and appreciation. We hope this has made a difference and look forward to the next opportunity to give something back”.

On behalf of the Semongkong community, we are incredibly grateful to them for this generous donation and their time with the children.

Click here for more information on Athena ETS