Aspire Europe are undertaking a project to support the TagRugbyTrust, a Portishead based charity that, using sport brings education to under privileged communities. You can read more of the story below... but current fundraising activities that you may wish to support us on include:

1. 15,000ft Skydive - (self funded by the team) on the 18th March
2. Cross channel swim - (admittedly in a swimming pool) in April
3. Kit scrummage - we are gathering spare kit from local rugby and other sports clubs to ship to the academies
4. Prize draw - organisations have contributed prizes. Prizes include a weekend away for 6 at a holiday home in Newquay, a cross-Severn yacht trip from Bristol to Cardiff bay with lunch included, a meal for two at top Bristol restaurant The Cowshed and many other prizes . Tickets are going to be sold at 6 Nations events in February by the team AND ANYONE WHO MAKES A JUSTGIVING DONATION WILL ALSO RECEIVE DRAW TICKETS AS A THANK YOU.
5. Coast to coast bike ride - planned for July.

The Story

The Aspire Europe team had the opportunity in October 2015 to meet a 9 year old Ugandan girl who won a competition to fly to England and carry the rugby ball onto the pitch before the Australia versus Wales world cup game at Twickenham. Lucky and her mother, Fortunate, are both heavily involved in the Tag Rugby Trust (TRT) in Uganda and spoke from first- hand experience how the charity has made such a difference to their community by providing training, education, an avenue for bringing the community together and providing a sense of passion and purpose to many local people’s lives through sport.

TRT is a skills training charity that uses tag rugby as a training tool to support and enhance its training syllabus. TRT delivers a hands on syllabus in a wide variety of fields including rugby coaching, media & journalism, first aid, small business related skills and many others. The TRT training is ideal for the young leaders that are part of the bursary programme. As well as training, TRT sets up Community Clubs (mini rugby clubs) for the trainees to continue their development in a
practical manner by managing and growing their own clubs. The idea is that TRT offers a hands on vehicle for the young leaders and trainees to practice their training.

Aspire have taken APM project challenge as the perfect opportunity to help by creating a project to provide management training eLearning for the coaches, equipment and funding to the TRT to help improve the local management of the charity as well as raising funds for kits and educational supplies. 

Aside from the benefits to the TRT, team Aspire Europe are also hoping the challenge will contribute towards their professional development by obtaining skills as they face the challenges of running a real project that they have read about between the pages of text books…however most importantly, team Aspire Europe are most intrigued where the project will take them on a personal level. The nature of the project means the team will have a once in a life time opportunity to engage with a different culture, form relationships and be inspired by people they never would normally have encountered in day-to-day western life. The project has the potential to provide these young professionals with a different outlook on life and experiences that will last a life time.

Follow our updates on Twitter @TagRugbyFund

Please could you leave your email address in the comments box or email coursemanager@aspireeurope.com so we have your contact details for the raffle prize draw.