Football Shirt Culture.com

Red Barnet (Save the Children Denmark) had their annual collection yesterday in aid of the children in the country of Sierra Leone and hummel are offering a helping hand to by donating 8% of the Sierra Leone national team football shirt sales to the work carried out by Save the Children Denmark in the slum districts in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.  

Sierra Leone is best known as a poor country marked by years of civil warfare. However, at the same time it is also a football crazy country with a well-playing national football team for which hummel have now become official sponsor. The green and blue shirts worn by the ‘Leone Stars’ as they are called, will be sold in selected sports stores in the beginning of 2009.

“Sierra Leone has been labelled ‘the worst country to survive in’ and since the beginning of the 1990es the people of Sierra Leone have lived under gruelling conditions. In times like these it’s extremely important for people to have a common focus, something to gather around. And in this connection the Leone Stars have always been a rallying point. Being able to support the pride of the nation and turning the football starts into role models for children while helping these children in collaboration with Save the Children makes me really proud and only emphasizes my strong belief that this partnership is perfect for all parties involved”, hummel owner Christian Stadil states.

“I’ve just been to Sierra Leone and visited the children in the slum districts where they live on piles of waste and rubbish. The child mortality is alarmingly high, the schools are very insufficient and I could go on and on. But children still have a will and strength to live and everywhere I saw children playing football with cans and clothing bundles – anything that they could make a ball out of. Therefore, it’s more than ideal that hummel are able to combine football and charity and thereby help us giving the children of Sierra Leone a better future”, General Secretary of Save the Children Denmark Mimi Jakobsen says.

The Sierra Leoneans themselves will be able to buy supporter jerseys for their beloved team that always gathers more 40.000 spectators at each home game. hummel have decided to place the production of these jerseys in Africa thereby creating more jobs in a region not many producers dare to enter.

Together, we can make a difference

The hummel company ethos, which is called ‘Company Karma’, believes that altruism or good old fashioned Christian charity pays off in the long run, also when it comes to business. With this strategy in mind, hummel have supported a number of charities and the focus is now on promoting education and health in Sierra Leone and the country’s pride and joy, the Leone Stars.

Thanks to Daniel