Newport County AFC have donated football shirts to a local football team travelling to Bangladesh.
The Exiles have donated a number of black away shirts to a football team that are travelling to Bangladesh, to mix playing football with helping local charities in the country.
The ‘Bengal Tigers’ are taking twenty-six players on the trip, and depart on Sunday.
During the trip the side will be playing games against teams from Bangladesh’s top division and also partnering up with a charity to construct water wells in the country and offer support to those in the poorest regions of Bangladesh.
Nazrul Islam, from Maindee, is part of the squad that is flying out on Sunday and today met with Director’s Gavin Foxall and John Bowkett, who presented Nazrul with the Newport County shirts.
“We have nominated some regions and teams that the kits will be donated to in Bangladesh,” said Nazrul.
“We will also be providing stationary and other supplies to the schools, while also constructing much needed water wells.”
He added, “While out in Bangladesh we will be playing football against some Bangladesh first-division sides, so we will be playing in front of crowds of around eight-thousand people, which will be a great experience.”
“The whole trip has been put together and planned over the past six months and we only contacted Newport last week to see if there was any possibility of them donating some old training gear, so to have these brand new shirts is a big bonus!”
“We are grateful for this donation from Newport County and are looking forward to progressing the links with ourselves and County in the Community once we return to the UK.”
Director Gavin Foxall said, “It has been great that the Club has been able to help out the lads on their tour to Bangladesh.”
“Once we were informed about this, as a board we were only happy to help. Listening to the plans of the trip it seems that there is a great opportunity for the boys to help local communities in Bangladesh, through the connection of football.”
“We hope the boys have a successful trip and look forward to strengthening our ties with them once they return.”
Community Development Officer Norman Parselle said, “Naz contacted me just over a week ago to ask if we could donate any training gear that the lads could take over to Bangladesh with them.”
“There obviously has been a lot on planning from the lads to get this once in a lifetime trip organised, so it’s great that the Club have been able to provide them with shirts, as a small donation that they can take with them on this tour. I look forward to seeing the pictures of Newport County AFC represented in Asia!”
“As a Community team we see this as a stepping stone in reaching out to the Asian community and we are looking to build relationships with the local Asian population.”