Swansea City fan Emyr provides kit and stationary for Zambian school and orphanage

Lifelong Swans fan and founder member of Jacs y Gogledd, Emyr Davies, visited Mkushi in Zambia earlier this year to provide local children with football kits and stationary provided by Swansea City.

Emyr was part of a group of 16 people who went to visit the Itala Foundation School Mkushi and associated orphanage, which were built in 2001 by sixth-formers and teachers from Caernarfon’s Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen.

The extremely poor rural part of Zambia formerly had no education facilities and, since that initial visit, numerous journeys have taken place with young people from Gwynedd and Anglesey travelling to Mkushi to help maintain the school’s facilities and raise funds for tuition.

Over the past two decades, the project has grown exponentially and now more than 980 children attend the school and receive formal education.

Earlier this year, Davies – inspired by previous trips to the school made by his wife Iona, who is a teaching assistant at Syr Hugh Owen, and his daughters Efa and Erin, who were students there - was part of a group who visited the Itala Foundation.

"The children have no possessions of their own, but due the generosity of the club, many of them were presented with Swans shirts and many more benefited from the donation of much needed Swansea City AFC notebooks to help them with their schoolwork," he said.

“The joy and gratitude of the pupils on receiving the gifts was overwhelming and as an avid follower of Swansea City for over 60 years, I have never been more proud to be a Swan. We cannot thank the club enough for their support.”