We got together online to discuss Sharlom’s history, her connection to Friends of Pakati, why she decided to support us, and what she has been up to recently.
Hope you enjoyed this podcast – we have more planned with new guests to look forward to!
One of the things to come out of the recent Community Day on 22nd March was the donation of some football shirts.
They are all replica shirts except one, which is from the Iron Hour Podcast, largely because it was Gareth from the podcast team who donated the bag of shirts – Thank you Gareth!
The shirts are up for sale, just let us know which you want, then how much your offer is. Obviously we will be taking the highest bid for each one (but not if they are too low)
Please DM me on X (Twitter) at either @guiuan03 or @friendsofpakati or email friendsofpakati@gmail.com
Also, if you see me at the next Scunthorpe United home game on Saturday, 12th April, I can accept cash on the day & will bring them to the game. As usual, I will be in & around the Iron Bar beforehand if that’s more convenient.
Just to follow on from that, the raffle prize was won by Scunthorpe United fan Mollie following the draw in the Iron Bar after the game. Unfortunately she had already left, so we arranged to hand over the prize at the next game.
Mollie accepting her prize!
Here is the podcast, recorded just yesterday…
As Brad mentioned, we have an interested party looking to get involved with Friends of Pakati which could well have a significant impact on us (favourably!) & could be a long-term partner for us. A meeting is being planned & we hope to put out a podcast (or maybe 2…) from that meeting to introduce them & explain where we go from there.
More stories & podcasts to come…see you again soon!
Hi everyone! Here is what happened on Saturday 22nd March at the home of Scunthorpe United.
It was a day when my two abiding passions came together – Friends of Pakati, and The Iron…
Our stall at Glanford Park/Attis Arena on Community Day
Here is a video from YouTube showing what happened, with thanks to my friend Lee, who hosts the football vlog, Around the Grounds. Friends of Pakati had a stall at the Community Day, prior to the match between Scunthorpe United and Chester FC
My thanks go also to Alison Redhead, a fellow Iron fan & long-term friend, and my youngest son Daniel, for helping out on the stall.
We sold quite a few raffle tickets for the main orize – a signed, framed Scunthorpe United football shirt from the 2010/11 season. Following the draw in the Iron Bar just after the game, the winning ticket belonged to a girl called Mollie, who attends the games with her Dad, Richard. We will be presenting the prize to Mollie this coming Saturday, pictures to follow afterwards.
Chris & Daniel with the prize & the winning ticket
On the day we raised a fantastic £115 towards our goal, now we have a total of £256.28 in the bank (see our page ‘Finances’. A huge THANK YOU to all who donated on the day – Iron fans came up trumps again for Friends of Pakati👏👏👏👏👏
On an interesting note, we met someone who may well feature in future blogs, as he spoke about offering support to Friends of Pakati possibly on a long term basis….much more is to come on this as we are currently duscussing in more detail. A podcast and/or vlog is planned for mid-April.
Coming up soon…
We have some new pictures & videos from Pakati Primary & Secondary schools, as they have been involved in an annual Sports, Science & Arts Festival.
Soon, we will be releasing our podcast, which we recorded recently with Sharlom Chaitika, our regular donor we featured not long ago.
Keep an eye out for more updates from Friends of Pakati!
Hi everyone…welcome to Friends of Pakati! This weekend sees us with a stall at the Scunthorpe United FC Community Day, on Saturday 22nd March.
Pun badges on sale at £4 each!
The Iron host Chester FC at the Attis Arena/Glanford Park, kick-off at 3pm. Prior to the game, our stall, as part of the Community Day, will be open from 12 noon to 2.30pm to visit.
Please come and see Friends of Pakati & bring football shirts to our stall, say hi, help out for a short time, buy stuff, donate what you can for @friendsofpakati in cash, buy a raffle ticket – hoping to raise funds for our current priorities https://friendsofpakati.com/2024/12/08/our-next-targets-for-pakati-schools/
Raffle prize – 2010/11 season signed shirt
We will welcome fans of both teams, & hope to get several shirts of any club to sell on the day or online later.
We also hope to sell our own Merchandise as Follows:
Mugs £5 each
Pin badges £4 each
Key rings £2 each & Coasters £2 each
I have been promised a few items from the club to sell or raffle on the day too…
Hi everyone! Welcome to Friends of Pakati & our latest vlog.
There are a number of fan-groups who publish opinions & reviews about Scunthorpe United FC, one of which is called the Iron Hour Podcast. They agreed for me to go onto their show in the run-up to the Community Day on 22nd March – see https://friendsofpakati.com/2025/02/22/community-day-sufc/
Below is the section of the podcast showing the interview with the Author by podcast host Andy Barraclough (Barra). Thank you for allowing me to use it here at Friends of Pakati.
Chris being interviewed by Barra (Andy Barraclough)on the Iron Hour Podcast
I am always grateful to Iron fans, club staff & owners/directors for their help & ongoing support since 2019 when Friends of Pakati began.
We are hoping to see many Iron fans & club people at our stall, whether it be helping out, donating football shirts, buyimg raffle tickets & merchandise or just coming for a chat & maybe a small cash donation. We also welcome anyone from Chester FC to visit us too!
Greetings everyone! As you will already know, Friends of Pakati are due to have a stall at the Scunthorpe United FC Community Day on 22nd March, as the Iron host felliw title-challengers Chester FC: https://friendsofpakati.com/2025/02/22/community-day-sufc/
We have, thanks to our generous podcast host Bradley Mell, a great raffle prize on the day!
This is a framed football shirt, signed by the players of the 2010/2011 season.
On the Open Day we attended in July 2024 (see pictures below), a similar shirt raised a large part of our funds on the day, over £100 out of the £160 we received.
We are hoping for another successful day, selling merchandise (see pictures below), raffle tickets, & accepting any donations, be they in cash or via http://paypal.me/friendsofpakati plus any donated football shirts.
The football team I have supported & followed since I was a small boy is, as you will already know, called Scunthorpe United. It is nicknamed ‘The Iron’ because of the Iron & Steelworks which dominate the town in many ways.
This included either reading the football scores in the Guardian Weekly or listening to the sports bulletins on BBC World Service when I worked in Zimbabwe (1989-1991) and in Botswana (1995-1997).
As you will already know, I taught at Pakati Secondary school in Zimbabwe, and following a return visit in 2018, I started Friends of Pakati soon afterwards.
In the years since then, my two passions have joined together many times, largely thanks to the generosity of people connected to the football club. This includes a great number of Iron fans who have supported us in different ways, plus many people who work for the club, including a past Chairman, owners, managers, board members, backroom staff, mascots, programme & raffle ticket sellers, not to forget local media organisations & politicians who have regularly shared our social media presence.
Myself, and all at both Pakati schools & the local community, are very grateful for the support, and all appreciate the continued efforts to help👏👏👏
The club have a Community Day each season, with teduced prices, invitations to local youth & grassroots community football clubs, tickets for military personnel, and usually a mixture of stalls for fans to visit & chat with.
It will likely have a variety of stalls including supporters groups such as the Iron Trust, Iron Bru, Iron Hour, maybe local community groups, military stalls, food stalls, voluntary organisations as well as the club shop. Friends of Pakati will be there too, just as we were on the Open Day back in July 2024.
Club joint owner/board member Ian Sharp visits our stall at the Open Day in 2024
As previously, we will be selling merchandise to boost our funds, and we will also have donated items for raffle /sale/auction. Already there is a signed framed shirt promised from the 2011/12 season, and the club have promised some small items too.
We are also looking for football shirt donations to either sell or auction, similar to what we were given back in 2019…
…we will accept shirts of ANY team. I will be at the game on the 8th March & you can donate to Friends of Pakati then, or even on the Community Day. Please email us at friendsofpakati@gmail.com if you want to post any shirts to me.
We will have a collection bucket on the day for cash donations, but our two main fundraising pages are always open…
Hi everyone, welcome to our latest podcast, courtesy of our regular host & Friend of Pakati, Bradley Mell.
We discuss podcasts that are coming up & future fundraising events. Have a listen & let us know what you think! friendsofpakati@gmail.com
We welcome new guests onto the podcast, so if you have a connection to Pakati schools or Friends of Pakati in general, and want to appear on a podcast, please let us know!
We spoke for over an hour just recently, and covered a lot of ground as we caught up with each others adventures – mine in Zimbabwe for Friends of Pakati, Sharlom’s in Eswatini as a volunteer for Challenge Ministries. We also talked about our current plans – mine to raise funds for power & wifi at Pakati, hers to start a new project in Zimbabwe – this will be part of a series of podcasts/vlogs we are planning to record soon.
Sharlom is a Specialist Biomedical Scientist at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. Here is the outline of her story….
Sharlom at Bulembu Christian Academy
“Hi Chris, I hope you are doing well today. I will be sending some pictures shortly,I thought it’d be nice to include some pictures of my recent trip to Eswatini with the students that I worked with as well as a few individual ones of my self….. I will also attach an article that I did for the Institute of Biomedical Sciences to give context to my work in Eswatini.”
Giving a Science lesson at Bulembu
Below is the article she mentioned that she had published:
Clearly the time spent in Bulembu has left an impression on her, & she has enjoyed working with the students….
….so much so that she sent me the following:
“Hey Chris, I just checked and the photos I sent earlier cover most of my journey. I also wanted to share some pictures from our 10k run at Alton Towers with my work colleagues last November. We did it to raise funds for Challenge Ministries Eswatini.”
With her new project currently being set up, Friends of Pakati will be following her progress, and she will feature in future posts, including the aforementioned podcasts/vlogs.
Many thanks to Sharlom for her continued support & great encouragement to help keep Friends of Pakati going!
