Tottenham Hotspur visit SOS CV Beijing

Heurelho Gomes, Wilson Palacios and Carlo Cudicini were welcomed by children, SOS mothers and staff at the newly opened SOS Children’s Village in Beijing's first suburb Daxing district, as part of the Club’s visit to China.The players met the first group of orphaned children welcomed into the SOS Children’s Village as part Tottenham Hotspur’s support for the charity.

The Village took delivery of football equipment provided by Tottenham Hotspur with players participating in a mini football match involving children living in the Village along with children from Daxing No2 Primary School, where many of the children attend school.

Heurelho Gomes, Tottenham Hotspur’s ambassador to SOS Children’s Villages said, “It was a great day, one of the most important days in my life. I enjoyed the visit and to see the smiles on the faces of the children means a lot. It’s important for the Club and the players to be involved with charity work. “I’m sure many people think football is just about what happens on the pitch and all the glamour that comes with it, but this is also football. It makes me very proud to be involved and to make children like this happy. These children need a family and here they have a family. It’s a beautiful place.”

Carlo Cudicini added, “The Children’s Village is unbelievable and what they have done for the children here is fantastic. It’s a simple but great concept. They are giving the children who have very little a home and happiness. “You see the children, their smiling faces and that’s what matters. The kids are happy, they live with their adopted families and it’s the most important thing for a child to have a family to grow up with. “It’s great for the club to be involved with SOS Children’s Villages. We all think about football on the pitch, but what football clubs are doing in terms of charity and community work, especially at Tottenham Hotspur and their involvement with SOS, is fantastic. “People rarely see this side of football, by playing football we can also reach out to help people who are not as lucky as us. It’s a one of the most important things we can do.”

The Village officially open its doors earlier this month in China’s capital city making it country’s tenth SOS Children’s Village. The Village provides a home for children who cannot, for whatever reason, grow up with their natural family. Each family and child in the Beijing village has an SOS mother educated to college degree level or higher.

At full capacity, up to 120 children will find a new home in one of the 15 houses and there will be 100 children in the Village by the end of the year. Since the charity entered China in 1984, ten villages have been built in Tianjin, Yantai, Qiqihar, Nanchang, Kaifeng, Chengdu, Putian, Urumqi, Lhasa and finally Beijing.

In 2007 the Club announced a four-year international charity partnership with SOS Children's Villages. Since the launch of the partnership Tottenham Hotspur has worked with the charity on a number of initiatives, including financing the construction of the Tottenham Hotspur House in Rustenburg South Africa. The Tottenham Hotspur House, which is uniquely and completely funded by monies received from players' fines, aims to provide orphaned children in South Africa with a family that they can call their own.The SOS Children's Village Rustenburg is situated in a suburb called Tlhabane West, a particularly needy area of Rustenburg, which forms part of the North West province that has a high number of orphaned and vulnerable children.

SOS Children would like to say an enormous thank you to the Club for their continuing support and friendship!

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