ROCKET MEN TO MALAWI

When we launched Rocket Men last year we wanted to do something to honour the memory of the late, great Graham Taylor. We decided, with the blessing of the Taylor family, to donate £1 from every book sold to Kit Aid - the charity of which he was patron. Kit Aid donate football kits to some of the poorest children around the world and fund education projects.

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We wanted to let you know exactly how the money raised is being spent with the aim of creating a lasting legacy for the book in the name of a manager who did so much for Watford Football Club and so many people connected with it.

The money is being donated to a charity called Friends of Mulanje Orphans (FOMO) who support orphaned and the most vulnerable children, providing Health, Education, food security and out of school activities in Malawi. It is a charity that Kit Aid has worked with in the past and that was recommended to us due to the fact that we wanted to invest in a project that had education at its core.

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As part of their care programme FOMO recognised that there is a need for additional secondary school places and a number of years ago they buillt a secondary school with an intake of 400 students. FOMO provide free places to the children, but due to high costs of materials and teaching resources, FOMO is unable to provide the children with sufficient teacher and student text books to cover all eleven subjects for the newly introduced curriculum.

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FOMO’s primary care is aimed at children that come from the poorest of families and are disadvantaged in every respect. The burden on these families to find additional money to cover school textbooks is too great a challenge and the children go without, having to rely solely on their classroom notes which puts them at a further disadvantage.

The funds raised from Rocket Men are being used to buy the school a brand new set of textbooks across a wide range of subjects - approximately 630 books. Access to text books in the school library and classroom sets that can be used over an over again will help alleviate the pressure and help to provide a level playing field for all the children.

The text books will be of great benefit to the school, children and teaching outcomes for many years to come and the first delivery of books - funded by sales of Rocket Men - arrived in the last couple of weeks, with a second delivery coming soon.

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Next month, we will be making a visit to the school in Malawi to meet with the teachers and students to learn more about the school and tell them about how the new textbooks came to be funded and the story behind Rocket Men. We will also be taking the kits donated to us at our last TFTV Live event, Rocket Men stage canvases and copies of the Rocket Men book for the school to have. 

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This will be the start of the relationship with FOMO and future contributions will be made for the lifetime of the book in memory of the greatest manager Watford has ever had.  

Click here if you wish to buy a copy of Rocket Men.