Events - Serge Betsen Academy

Event: The Ovalies UniLaSalle 2022 are supporting us!

March 16, 2022/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

We are very happy to have been chosen as one of the beneficiaries of the Ovalies UniLaSalle 2022 with the charities, Une ballade pour Justine et Lou and L’Arche à Beauvais.

We can’t wait to attend this event on 6 and 7 May in Beauvais! It is the biggest uni rugby tournament with a charitable touch and we fell very grateful to be part of it!

Serge Betsen will be present at the tournament.

Thank you to the Ovalies UniLaSalle team and to their partners for their support.

Event: “Serge Betsen Academy inter-centre rugby tournament – Societe Generale Cameroun”, third edition.

October 21, 2021/in Actions, Events/by Mailys Finel

We are delighted to announce that the third edition of the “Tournoi de rugby inter-centres Serge Betsen academy Société Générale Cameroun” (Serge Betsen Academy – Societe Generale Cameroon inter-centre rugby tournament) will take place on Saturday 30 October in Bangangté, Cameroon.

Due to the pandemic, this tournament initially planned for 2020 had to be postponed, thus leaving more time for the Etoudi, Zoétélé and Bangangté teams to get game-ready. The shield, which has been held by Etoudi since 2018, will be put back into play, and the teams just can’t wait!

This year, we are honoured to have Société Générale Cameroun by our side as the Title Sponsor of the Tournament. We would like to warmly thank them for their generous support.

Three companies and one association have also agreed to sponsor us for this tournament which is very close to the heart of our young rugby players: : Groupe SABC whom we thank for their drinks during the Tournament, Cameroon Motors Industries (CAMI), AXA Cameroun whom we thank for the food during the Tournament and Recycling Rugby, the French operation which recycles rugby balls into bags, purses… It is a pleasure to see the enthusiasm of companies, established for many years on the red soil, for rugby and our actions in favour of underprivileged children.

A big thank you to our five Sponsors for their support without which this edition could not have been organised.

We therefore give you an appointment on Saturday 30 October to support our rugby players at the Lycée Classique of Bangangté stadium or online, on our social networks!

Translation: Katy Birge-Wilson

Event: A recognition from The French Development Agency at the New Africa-France Summit

October 12, 2021/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

The Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) had the honor of attending the New Africa-France 2021 Summit on Friday further to an invitation from the French government (Elysée) and The French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement).

This recognition at the highest level is the result of several months of work, and of a success story in Cameroon for 17 years and in Mali for almost 2 years. The support of The French Development Agency offers an exceptional support to the Serge Betsen Academy in terms of growth and to the well-being of girls and boys in Cameroon and Mali.

The children of the SBA, Odile Prévot, CEO of the charity and all the other volunteers join Serge Betsen, Founding President of the Serge Betsen Academy and Sébastien Lovy, Treasurer of the charity who both had the privilege of speaking at the New Africa-France Summit, in thanking French President Emmanuel Macron, The French Development Agency and Sport en Commun for their support and investment.

Event: The SBA, a solidarity partner of the Anglet Beach Rugby Festival

July 29, 2021/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

The Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) was this year, once again, thrust into the limelight during the Anglet Beach Rugby Festival which was held on the Plage des Sables d’Or in Anglet on 23-24-25 July. On the occasion of this special “African rugby” edition, a team of ace volunteers held the stand of SBA goodies and Confections signed by Recycling Rugby. A raffle was even organised this year on our stand.

Serge Betsen attended the Festival on Saturday and Sunday. He had the pleasure to meet up the staff of the Festival, spend time with the volunteers of our stand, follow with interest the different matches on the sand, meet players and spectators, visit the stands and play rugby with the French Legends.

Our President, Serge Betsen along with the SBA warmly thank all the buyers who supported us, the curious who came to learn more about our mission, our volunteers for their enthusiasm and the Anglet Beach Rugby Festival team for their invitation and their donation of £1702 (2000€).

See you all next year!

Fundraising: The International School of Toulouse supports the Serge Betsen Academy

July 10, 2021/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

The entire Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) would like to thank the management of the International School of Toulouse, its students from classes ranging from Early Years (maternelle) to G5 (CM2) and their families for their support.

Their end of school year cross-country racing which took place on Monday 21 June was an opportunity to collect rugby balls and raise £172 (201€) for the SBA. The balls will be recycled into bags and pouches of all kinds by our partner, Recycling Rugby. As for the sum of £172, it will fund after-rugby-training snacks for all our centres in Cameroon and Mali for the two summer months.

The management’s choice went to the SBA for two major reasons. As part of a sports week, the school wanted to support an association which had links to sports, and as you know, we love rugby. Moreover, as the school is engaged in an eco-citizen project, the management wanted to make the children aware of the many ways of recycling – in this case the recycling of sports equipment, through Recycling Rugby. We are delighted to have been the happy beneficiary of this united and green approach that we can but only applaud.

Thank you everyone!

And for those of you who wish to order a pencil case, a bag, a wallet, a purse, a toilet bag… made from recycled balls: just go to the Recycling Rugby Facebook page or the Recycling Rugby Instagram account pending the launch of the website which will arrive shortly.

Translation : Katy Birge-Wilson

Event: We’ve received a donation of £3990.90 further to the SA2021 Preview Lunch!

July 5, 2021/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

During the SA2021 Preview Lunch aboard the Belmond British Pullman luxury train on 23rd June, RugbyUnites.com ran an online auction to raise vital funds for the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) and the South African Legends Food Program.

On 23rd June, guests of Victor Ubogu, former Bath and England rugby union player and Managing Director of VU Ltd gathered aboard this unique train to talk about the British and Irish Lions’ stories and also raise funds for good causes.

We want to thank everyone who bided in aid of our charity and the South African Rugby Legends food program to vulnerable communities in South Africa, or who have made a donation.

Between bids and donations, the beautiful sum of £3990.90 (4655,48 €) was allocated to the SBA and £2890.45 (3371,78 €) to the SA Rugby Legends, which is brilliant! We feel very grateful to all our donors and friends who are supporting our children in Cameroon and Mali. The 2020 year has been very difficult for our children and their families, and we have sadly not raised the money we were hoping to raise because of the crisis, so this sum will help us a lot.

Well done Victor Ubogu for putting all this together! It was a pleasure to collaborate with you and your team. And once again, many thanks for supporting our charity!

Proofreading : Katy Birge-Wilson

Event: A beautiful Six-Nations Crunch game Virtual Quiz Night raising funds for our charity

March 22, 2021/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

On 11 March 2021, Serge Betsen and Rugby Legends hosted our first virtual quiz night thanks to the efforts of the TFA Ldt team who created the quiz. This evening of fun at the Six-Nations Crunch game Virtual Quiz Night was the occasion to raise funds for our charity!

You were 91 teams of players to stand up for our charity which means so much to us! Some questions of the quiz were of course related to rugby, but various topics linked to the French and British cultures have been chosen by Serge Betsen who was commenting.

Thank you to all the quiz teams, our Rugby Legends, and our donors for the support at the Six-Nations Crunch game Virtual Quiz night, it was a really fantastic evening. Congratulations to our winners, TEAM GOAT. You’re the first winners of this prestigious event, but we’re sure others will be back to challenge you next year!

The total raised from the evening is £4,094.22 so far – this will make a huge difference to the lives of the children we support in Cameroon and Mali, every £10 raised will pay for the meals for a child for a year. Thanks again to all the participants and donors! Serge is so grateful for your support on that night.

We felt very fortunate to count on Serge Betsen’s friends, Dimitri Yachvili, Danielle Waterman, Paul Wallace, Mike Phillips, Mike Tindall and Bryan Redpath. You were amazing quiz hosts!

A special thank you to Arun Sharma and Paul McHugh of TFA Limited for creating this quiz and for supporting our charity, and to Dataiku for their beautiful donation.

Thanks very much to all of you for your participation and your support. This evening made us feel like meeting you all in person and we truly hope that we will be able to gather for our next event. This year, the XV de France travelled to the UK for Le Crunch, that is why our virtual evening was in English. Next year, we should host the event in French, for sure!

Call for donations: Collection of rugby boots and sport shoes in progress

November 18, 2020/in Actions, Events, News/by Mailys Finel

Friends of the Paris and Toulouse regions, we need your sport shoes and rugby boots!

Our young people are truly enjoying rugby, even barefoot or in flip flops. Still we would really like to give them sport shoes or rugby boots so that they can train in better conditions.

If you have any of these treasures in good condition (child or adult sizes) in your closets, please send us a photo along with the size of the shoes by email (contact@sergebetsenacademy.org), so that we can see if they would suit one of our budding rugby players. They will for sure make someone happy.

Thank you so much to all of you who have already shared our call and made a donation.

Our favourite physiotherapist, Major Mouvement has published some great stories on his Instagram account to give us a helping hand and we thank him!

Translation : Katy Birgé-Wilson

Event: Once again, so much solidarity this year during the WateRugby!

October 2, 2020/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

This year, the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) was present in Toulouse from September 11 to 13 once again as a partner in solidarity with the “WateRugby Sud de France” tournament. Why ? Because the joy of playing rugby is to be shared and because rugby and solidarity go hand in hand.

We had an SBA stall set up where everyone was welcome to discover our mission and our actions, and also to get goodies or a Recycling Rugby confection. The total sales amounted to £1459 (=1608 €)! Of course, Lionel’s bags made from recycled rugby balls came out as the sales’ big winners.

International players and amateurs alike got involved in all the photos, posing with a Recycling Rugby bag. It was a great solidarity moment, thank you! We also thank all the visitors who came to us and asked questions, and bought one of our wonderful creations for a good cause! If you have not yet had the chance to grab the bag of your dreams, head to the @RecyclingRugby Facebook page. 100% of the profits are donated back to us. Custom-made confections are also possible.

This year again, we were able to count on the presence and the energy of 10 passionate volunteers whom we would like to thank a thousand times. Big thumbs up to Boris and his daughter Émilie, Nina, Caroline and her son Marius, Corinne the famous girl who taught Serge Betsen to tackle, Stéphanie, Aurélien, Christophe and his daughter Cassandre. You were absolutely perfect!

A big Thank you also to all the players for making us dream during three whole days! In these complicated times, it has done us a lot of good!

Thank you to Yann Delaigue and the entire “WateRugby Sud de France” team for the organisation and to all the superb partners gathered this year despite the Covid crisis, in particular: Sud de France, Barraque Peinture, Das WeltAuto, GPM Pharmateam, le Groupe ATF, Trade Discount, Laptopservice, La Région Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée…

Finally, we send a special thank you to the Groupe ATF for setting up their solidarity operation in favour of the SBA and our friends from Rugby French Flair. On the Trade Discount platform, the Groupe ATF has sold 2100 recycled computer equipments in September, therefore the SBA is going to receive a donation of £1909 (=2100 €).

Finally, if you want to see the official pictures of our stall and of the Legends posing with the #RecyclingRugby bags, go to our Facebook page. See you next year! Take care of yourself! Stay Safe!

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

Event: A great fundraising rugby event in St Palais!

March 18, 2020/in Events, News/by Mailys Finel

On February 2 in St Palais, Xabi Comets organized a rugby day raising funds for our charity. USD864 were collected to help our underprivileged children in Cameroon!

We would like to warmly thank Xabi Comets for organizing this charity day which highlighted the actions of our charity. It was a great opportunity for us to be presented to your partners and members. Thank you also for organizing a raffle and for giving us a beautiful cheque after the matches.

We also take the opportunity of this blog post to thank Nelly, our faithful volunteer from the South West of France and her mother-in-law. This event won’t have been possible without you! Thanks for introducing SBA during the lunch and for selling SBA goodies and bags, cases and wallets made of recycling rugby balls to the participants.

Thank you all for your great support and for your interest in our charity. The raffle tickets made USD772 and the sales on the stand, USD92. It was a beautiful charitable rugby event!