SYRIAN FAMILY PROVE TO BE GAA NATURALS Tennis players are busy
A FAMILY who fled war-torn Syria are settling into Wicklow life, with two of the children taking part in the Cul Camp at St Patrick’s GAA Club this week.
Wicklow Syria Appeal worked closely with Nasc, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre based in Cork, to develop a pilot community sponsorship project to sponsor al-Sulaiman family to come live in Wicklow town.
The family consist of Khalid and Ilham and their seven children.
Mohammed (13), Mustafa (7) and Aboudi (5) took part in a two week soccer camp at no charge, with Mohamed enjoying it so much he decided to stay on for a third week.
This week Mustafa and Aboudi tried their hand at GAA for the first time as they attended a Cul Camp run by St Patrick’s GAA Club and immediately proved to be naturals at Gaelic football.
Eddie Leonard of St Patrick’s GAA Club said: ‘We were delighted to see them attend. They started on Monday and took to football like ducks to water. It’s great to see them playing with the other kids and sitting and all having their lunch together. At first we thought they might be a bit shy but that wasn’t the case at all. It’s a great way to help integrate them into the community and children don’t see any barriers. The al-Su- laimans have been getting on great with everyone.’
The youngest female members of the family have also been enjoying the summer with Fatima (10) and Doha (15) both taking part in an art camp taking place in the Dominican. WICKLOW Tennis Club pass on the best of luck to the club’s four teams participating in the Dublin Lawn Tennis Council Mixed league which began last Friday and will run for a further four weeks.
The club had an action packed first week of daily activities and camps last week with some fantastic tennis weather, even if it was a little too hot at times for the younger members.
Coach John Brady will be running three more weeks of camps for members only. Details have been emailed to members and are also available to view on the website.
Members are reminded that they need to ‘Opt In’ to the mailing list if they have not done so already. This can be achieved by clicking on mailing list on the right hand side of the home page of the website.
The Ashvale Crèche Junior Championships take place August 13 and August 18 and the Sinnott Skoda Senior Championships take place on August 15 and August 25.
Entry forms will be circulated to members very shortly.
For information on any tennis matter or details on membership or how to join then please contact club administrator Sinéad Nolan at 085 1156051 or email info@ wicklowtennisclub.com.