Event: WateRugby, rugby on water in Toulouse

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A massive thank you to our awesome team in attendance at WateRugby Sud de France from the 13th to the 15th of September 2019, on the “Quais de la Daurade” in Toulouse!

Our volunteers Boris, Isabelle, Aurélien, Caro, Marius, Djamel, Stéphanie, Élie, Guilhem, Thierry and Claire were wonderful! Thanks to all of them, we collected a little more than $1450 (€1300) over the weekend and met new partners.  A big thank you also to all the rugby players for the show and entertainment, for coming to our stall to meet the volunteers (they were really happy) and for advertising our activity. Thanks also to the team in charge of organising the WateRugby event.

For those of you who were not able to come to our SBA stall, you can order a bag, wallet, purse … made out of recycled rugby balls on Recycling Rugby!

 

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

 

WateRugby

 

Event: Journée Rugby Solidaire #SBA15ans on 24 July in Bayonne

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Enjoy rugby at the Fêtes de Bayonne!

Come and join us on Wednesday 24 July at the Christian Belascain Stadium in Bayonne for a rugby solidarity day. This free and open event will feature junior tournament, women’s rugby, rugby 7s, and matches with former French rugby legends.

This will be the perfect opportunity to celebrate the 15 anniversary of the Serge Betsen Academy which will support for this special day the Aupa Jakes charity.

See you all at the Christian Belascain Stadium in Bayonne for a busy schedule:
10 am: U10 Rugby Tournament, U12
11:30 am: Women’s match
12:30 pm: Match 7’s and rugby 7’s initiation for all
2 pm: Basque Country vs Basque Coast Match
3:30 pm: French Legends vs Xapirons & Archiballs Match

The benefits of the stands will be entirely donated to Serge Betsen Academy.

More information on our Facebook event.

Event: Gala Dinner #SBA15ans on 23 July in Biarritz

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Come and celebrate our 15th anniversary!

In honor of our 15th anniversary, we are delighted to invite you to our Gala Dinner at the Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz on Tuesday 23 July 2019 at 7:30pm.

The dinner will be prepared by Vivien Durand, one Michelin start Chef at Le Prince Noir in Lormont and Jean-Marie Gautier awarded “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” and Chef at the Hôtel du Palais.

The theme of the evening will be the Rugby World Cup since its beginning. On this occasion, all generations will be represented: Pascal Ondarts, Olivier Roumat, Philippe Bernat-Salles, Serge Betsen, Imanol Harinordoquy, Patrick Tobacco, Nicolas Brusque, Pepito Elhorga, Jérôme Thion, Damien Traille and many other rugby stars. They will gather to support Serge’s initiative, which has been operating for 15 years!

The evening will be punctuated by musical interludes, rugby stories and an auction with exceptional prizes: a stay in Porquerolles, a stay in Cognac, a weekend at the Hôtel du Palais, some beautiful sculptures, unique spirits, signed jerseys and also jerseys of Dan Carter and Matthieu Bastareaud.

We hope you will all be able to attend!
Advance reservation required here and business attire dress code.

A big thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible: Financière Arbevel, our Principal Partner and Audio Network Limited, our Partner.

// SOLD OUT NOW!!// You can still write to Jenna on jenna@sergebetsenacademy.org to feature on the waiting list and you can still make a donation to support our charity via this form.

Event: Fundraising French Cards Games Event in Action!

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It seems that playing belote and jeu de tarot and raising funds for a good cause are more than compatible! Roger Nash, our dear volunteer proved it by organizing an amazing fundraising event at Wasps FC in Action on 3rd May 2019 which brought £4,410! It is a great amount of money to support our underprivileged children in Cameroon.

 

About 50 people gathered in Wasps FC to spend a nice evening together playing cards, enjoying a delicious duck confit, hearing great stories about our charity and donating money.

A huge thank you to our organizer Roger Nash, our hosts, the sponsors (Flint Wine, Europa Foods, Chanteroy, Papa Chef, Eric Merceron), the auction buyers and all the French cards games players for this fun evening together.

Event: A charity golf day with Dovehaven care homes!

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On 9 May, the Gilbert family and some Wasps Legends played golf with Serge Betsen at the charity golf day with Dovehaven care homes in order to raise funds for Serge Betsen Academy. The Gilbert family had met Serge in La Manga and decided to support us. We are so glad they made this decision of helping us as they managed to raise £28,770 in one day for us! It seems that they had great fun as well playing golf together.

We would like to say a huge thank you to our dear golf team and the Gilbert family for raising this amazing amount of money for us in order to offer a brighter future to our children in Cameroon.

 

Event: Frenchy Cocktail with Serge Betsen at Boulangerie Christophe in Washington DC!

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The Boulangerie Christophe in Washington DC hosted a fundraising cocktail on 26 April 26 2019 to raise funds for our charity. Serge Betsen who was travelling in the US on this date was therefore delighted to represent us alongside Odile Prevot.

$4,719.38 were raised during this Frenchy Cocktail with Serge Betsen for our young people in Cameroon! Delicious canapés were lovingly prepared by the chefs of the bakery and served with carefully selected French wines. Christophe and Didier gathered many guests around a so Frenchy yummy cocktail, who came to find out more about our actions in Cameroon and shake hands with the  rugby legend.

A big thank you to the Boulangerie Christophe for organizing this warm evening where guests had lively and passionate discussions! Thank you to our donors and to all participants for their enthusiasm and generosity. It’s so inspiring to spend such nice evenings like this one.

During his trip to the USA, Serge also had the honor of meeting with Odile Prevot, His Excellency Mr. Mahamadou Nimaga, Ambassador of Mali to the United States during an audience to present our actions in Cameroon to eventually apply our model in Mali. And of course Serge could not resist playing rugby during his trip so he joined the DC Touch Rugby team on the pitch for a nice training. This great team helps us to raise awareness about our association there, so we are grateful to them.

A big thank you to everyone for your support!

Event: Our young SBA ambassadors shined at Salon Promote!

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After receiving an invitation by Sharon Ganney and the British High Commission in Cameroon, the Serge Betsen Academy proudly took part in the 7th edition of the Salon Promote in Yaoundé this past February.

Five talented young students from our SBA centres in Bangangté and Bafia took part in the Salon to network and met different companies established in Cameroon. Our champions were accompanied by Odile Prevot, our CEO who attended the Salon during the three days and by Djibril, Manager of the Bangangté Centre. We would like to congratulate Bienvenu, Fanny, Sorelle, Baudelaire and Gilles on representing our charity during the Salon and on managing to introduce themselves to companies with such professionalism. They took part in a fruitful working session with the British High Commission in Cameroon and met with dynamic companies to learn about their activities. They notably had the chance to discuss with our friends from GreenHouse Ventures and our sponsor Victoria Oil and Gas Plc based in Douala. Through this meeting we hope that they were able to build meaningful connections for their future careers.

Odile Prevot also delivered a speech about “Rugby for education: from street idling to community champions”. She was accompanied by Fanny, who shared her experience as a Serge Betsen Academy student and gave details about the impact of our actions on her education and her life in general.

This Salon was a great opportunity for our five SBA ambassadors to develop their business network and for our charity to gain some visibility. We are proud of what they have achieved so far and we wish them all the best in their professional careers! And it seems that our team of superstars had great fun as you can see from their video ;) :

 

Event: A rainy but joyful American Charity Touch Rugby Tournament

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DC Touch Rugby and Roosters Rugby presented their annual Charity Touch Rugby Tournament to the benefit of the Serge Betsen Academy on September 23rd in Virginia.

Despite the miserable weather, 40 participants attended this charity event to encourage their team and gather for a good cause. After dynamic and joyful games on the wet pitch and a yummy friendly barbecue, DC Touch Rugby finally won the tournament against Roosters Rugby.

Thanks to all the rugbymen and participants for your dynamism, spirit of solidarity and generosity. We have raised 1,597.10 US dollars thanks to you all! It feels very good to see so many people believing in our charity and helping our SBA children to get a better chance to succeed in life.

 

For more pictures of the event, please visit our Facebook page.

Event: The Financière Arbevel Golf Tournament

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For the 4th year running we are once again delighted that the Financière Arbevel is the key sponsor for this golfing tournament.

We are very grateful to the Financière Arbevel for welcoming us and actively participating to raise funds for our future projects. We were also blessed by the presence of the key associations: RFF and ASET 93.

It was an excellent day to raise funds for these beautiful causes. Unbelievably the sum collected was multiplied by 4 thanks to the generosity of Jean Baptiste Delabare, which means that more than €6,000 has been collected for each association.

Special thanks once again particularly to Jean-Baptiste and the Financière Arbevel’s team for the organization, welcome, generosity and hospitality.

For SBA, these proceeds will allow us to fortify our projects, particularly in the areas of student health and exercise with rugby.

Event: A Rich Cultural Exchange with Tempo Latino!

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The Tempo Latino festival ran from July 26 to July 29. It is the premiere Festival of Latin and Afro-Cuban Music. In 2018 it celebrated its 25th anniversary in Vic-Fezensac. The program included concerts that set arenas ablaze with incredible rhythms pulsing right through the festivities interspersed with sporting events. Lionel was once again part of the team of volunteers (he is everywhere this Kenos!) and Serge was present in his role as Godfather of La Conga.

For the sporting component, the beaches of La Conga were transformed into rugby venues open to all comers. Serge made a small presentation to introduce the noble game of rugby. Also present were members of HAMAC (Happy Areopagus mobilized for any Challenge) who richly animated the beach rugby games wearing some of the items that Lionel had created from recycled rugby balls. It was a fabulous exchange using both round and oval balls.

The Serge Betsen Academy was reveling in the solidarity. There was a beautiful exhibition celebrating paintings and photos at “Center Les 7 Pêchés Capiteux” (July 25). Highly original and creative goods were on display craafted from recycled rugby balls including bags, wallets and school kits. The proceeds from which were greatly received by the association. Thank you Lionel!

An additional sale of hand crafted goods was organized on a beach in La Conga. Serge was naturally on hand to welcome holidaymakers, introduce the association and demonstrate a few ball skills while conveying some wise advice to the youngsters.

                                             

Serge was invited by President Eric Duffau on stage to introduce and present the association to the music fans gathered for the opening of the Festival. To listen to the speech, click here  (in French)

 

And to top it off, a cheque for €2,500 euros was given to the association from La Conga Tempo Latino.

   

Many thanks to Tempo Latino and La Conga for the amazing support! SBA is so proud to have collaborated with you, and we were so honoured to be there for your 25th birthday. It was a great exchange of cultural values, bringing together diverse organisations with so much in common.

Thanks also to all who purchased the hand-crafted goods knowing that their contributions would aid the association. Once again we are indebted to Lionel for his passion and dynamism, and to Jenna for her participation and all the sponsors of the association who made this trip. A special shout out also to Francis, friend of Lionel, who is an enormous help on some of our trips to Cameroon.