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Charity begins at home
Flashback: The Caribbean champions pose with their trophies and medals for Kaieteur Sport shortly after touching down at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport last year.
By Rawle Welch
Recently the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) has held a couple of fund-raising activities aimed at procuring the necessary funds to participate in the North American & Caribbean Association (NACRA) Championships scheduled to be staged in Mexico from November 14-15.
Rated among the most prudent and accountable local sport organisations, the GRFU has admiringly demonstrated the old idiom ‘Charity begins at home’ in its quest to not depend totally on the munificence of corporate sponsorship, but has been helping itself raise a portion of the estimated sum of US$35,000 required to reach to Mexico.
The Union through its insightful leadership has so far held a successful Bar-b-Cue and two shows that featured Caribbean artistes including the popular stand-up comedian Paul Keens-Douglas at the National Cultural Centre, while a raffle is also planned, all in its effort to provide the defending Men’s and Women’s champions the opportunity to defend their respective titles at the upcoming tournament.
The cost of getting to the host venue is enormous, especially for a country that is struggling economically and the fact that the discipline, despite its outstanding achievements over a number of years, still struggles for mainstream acceptance.
It is indeed a remarkable effort by the GRFU’s executive to help itself and not fall into that category of mendicancy as is the case with so many others.
This is not to say that corporate assistance will not be needed, but it always helps to go to the bargaining table with the comfort of knowing and showing that at least a small percentage of the required sum is in your coffers.
There are some Sports Administrators who should take a page out of the book of the GRFU and a few others who’ve consistently demonstrated the capacity to organise fund raisers in the interest of helping their respective organisations and not be totally reliant on the goodwill of the business community.
The culprits of such behaviour know themselves and it could only serve their best interest if they should decide to for alliances with entities like the GRFU.
It could bring an end the huge disappointments athletes suffer when they make sacrifices to train and hear at the last moment that because of insufficient funds they would not be able to participate in events overseas.
With the Ministry of Sport’s tight-fisted stance when approached for financial assistance for sports teams, it becomes even more imperative for all organisations to pay special attention to this area of recruitment within their structure.
Three corporate entities GT&T, New GPC and Duke Lodge have all made commitments to the Union, while GEMS Theatre Productions was responsible for Keen-Douglas visit, but more assistance is needed, so it would be encouraging to see a few more business houses come forward and offer their support as well.
The two teams are currently the best in the Caribbean and from the recent remarks by the Technical Director Joe Whipple, who supervised a couple of practice sessions over the weekend, they stand an excellent chance of retaining their titles and gaining automatic selection to the Commonwealth Games in India next year and the World Sevens Series in the USA.
Come on Guyana, the Men have won it three years in a row, while the Women, who triumphed last year looks well set to repeat.
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