Event: Auction Sale in Clichy in support of the Serge Betsen Academy!

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Our President, Serge Betsen has kept very strong ties with the city of Clichy-la-Garenne, where it all started for him. Serge Betsen made his rugby debut at CS CLICHY and when he returns there it is always with a lot of emotion.

During the last day of the POP TRANSVERSALE exhibition, on June 29, the town hall of Clichy organised an auction in partnership with the auction house LILADAM ENCHERES. Six physical artworks by YSY were put on sale along with their NTF (a one-of-a-kind and impossible to duplicate digital token) which you can discover below.

 

YSY, whose real name is Youssef SY, is a talented artist passionate about the iconic characters of 90’s pop culture. A few days before the sale, Serge Betsen had the chance to meet the artist and visit his exhibition. Our President was also warmly welcomed by Mr. Stéphane Cochepain, first deputy mayor of Clichy, Caroline Mercier, deputy mayor in charge of community life, children’s rights and child protection, Luc Mercier, Deputy Mayor for Culture, International Relations and Tourism, and their teams.

The town hall of Clichy had suggested, and the artist agreed, that part of the profits from the sale would be donated to the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA). On the evening of the auction, following the sale of three artworks: Petit Prince, Goldorak and Gaulois together with their NTF, the very nice sum of 6,275€ was donated to our association.As for the other artworks: Robot, Rouquin and Alien (see above) as well as their NTF, they are still for sale. If you are interested please contact the YSY representative, Vincent Astolfi (vincastolfi@gmail.com) before July 22. A portion of the profits from these sales will also be donated to our association.

The entire SBA would like to thank YSY, Mr. Rémi Muzeau, Mr. Stéphane Cochepain, Mrs. Caroline Mercier, Mr. Luc Mercier, and the entire team of the town hall of Clichy and of course, the buyers for their support toward the SBA. We congratulate YSY and the town hall of Clichy as well as the Pavillon Vendôme and the auction house of LILADAM ENCHERES for this beautiful exhibition.

Translation: Katy Birgé-Wilson

“An evening with Serge Betsen & Friends”: A successful charitable event thanks to the participants!

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Our event “An evening with Serge Betsen & Friends” was a major success on all accounts. Serge Betsen and all our team want to thank everyone who contributed to this successful charitable event on 19th May 2022 and say a massive thank you to TFA Ltd and Arun Sharma for organizing the evening!

It was a pleasure to spend the evening with 50 generous and enthusiastic, share a delicious dinner at M Restaurant Victoria in a great atmosphere thanks to Simon Shaw. The rugby legends were in top shape, the quiz by TFA Ltd was great fun and the auctions by Go Fundraising were fab. And of course, the discussions about rugby were passionate. Congrats to the Hadley Herberts team for being the 2022 SBA Quiz Champions!

We are pleased to let you know that the benefits of the event are a bit more than £14,000. This sum will be used to carry out our mission in Cameroon and Mali and will make sure a positive impact on the lives of our children.

We are so grateful to our sponsors and partners for making this event possible. Thank you to:

– our sponsors: Audio Network, Event headline sponsor and STH Group UK, Quiz round sponsor
– the organiser of the evening, TFA Ltd and Arun Sharma for offering his time and skills
– our legends, Aled Brew, Bryan Redpath, Kevin Maggs and of course Serge Betsen for hosting the quiz
– LePetitJournal.com Londres and French Morning London for helping us with promotion.
– Ed Telling for being our photographer.

Please find here the photos of the event by TELLING PHOTOGRAPHY.

See you next year for another edition!

 

  

Event: An evening with Serge Betsen & Friends, Dinner, live quiz and legends Q&A, 19 May 2022, M Victoria Street London

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We are very pleased to let you know that we have set a new date and a new location for our event.
Our “Evening with Serge Betsen & Friends – Dinner, live quiz and legends Q&A” organized by TFA Ltd will take place on Thursday 19th May at 6:00pm at M Victoria Street, 74 Victoria St, London, SW1E 6SQ, UK. This event will be sponsored by Audio Network, as Event headline sponsor, along with STH (Sports Travel & Hospitality Group), as Quiz round sponsor.

 

The rugby legends will discuss, dispute and digest what’s been happening on the pitch, and we hope you will be able to join us. It should be a fantastic evening which includes a delicious 3-course meal, opportunity to mix and quiz our Rugby Legends and the chance to win the title of SBA Quiz Champions.

 

Please join us from 6pm. Upon arrival please advise the concierge you are attending the Serge Betsen Academy event and they will show you the cloakroom and the Grill room, where the event is taking place. You will be able to have drinks and pay for them at the bar. The dress code is smart casual.

 

Please register your team and book your dinner (£99), table (£500) or online quiz spot (£10) here! You can pay for your tickets via our donation page here.  We would really appreciate if you would be able to do this prior to the event. There will be an auction organized by Go Fundraising so get ready to bid! All proceeds will go to our charity.

 

Also, please note that the menu will be the following. If you can let us know in advance your preferences by email (mailys@sergebetsenacademy.org et sba-quiz@tfaltd.co.uk), by Friday 13 May 5pm, it would be great.

 

– STARTERS
1) FRIED CHICKEN BAO Fermented Chilli Glaze | Kaffir Lime
or, 2) BURRATA & RADISHES Black Curry | Honey | Walnuts (V)
– MAINS
1) BRITISH ASHDALE FARM Sirloin 300G | Black Garlic | Chips | Sauce
or, 2) CACIO E PEPE Pecorino | Butter | Pepper (V)
– DESSERT
CHOCOLATE BROWNIE Raspberry Gel | Honeycomb | Snickers Ice Cream

 

For those who cannot join us, it will be possible to take the quiz online, however, you won’t be able to join the evening from your screen.

 

We can’t wait to spend the evening with you and your friends. Please spread the word!

 

Event: The Ovalies UniLaSalle 2022 are supporting us!

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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.

 

 

Ovalies UniLaSalle

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

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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

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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.

 

Le Président Emmanuel Macron et Serge Betsen

Serge Betsen, Sébastien Lovy et Didier RetièreOdile et les enfants de la SBA

 

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

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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!

Serge Betsen and the SBA X Recycling Rugby volunteers

SBA X Recycling Rugby Stand

French Legends team

Donation from the Anglet Beach Rugby Festival

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

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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!

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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

 

SA Preview Lunch aboard the train

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

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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.

Crunch quiz game
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!