Cuan Forrest with podcast host Bradley Mell. Photo by Chris Walker
As we mentioned previously, the podcast was facilitated by Scunthorpe United FC with particular help from Glyn Sparks at the club. We held our discussions in one of the Executive boxes (Andy Flounders) overlooking the pitch.
Below is the podcast, recorded after an excellent discussion with Cuan, Bradley, Maybelle Forrest, Bina & Chris.
After the meeting, Glyn allowed us to have some photos pitchside…
All in all, it was a very good day. We are now starting to implement some of the suggestions we discussed, & we will update you all as we make progress!
I am delighted to say that one of our good friends, Simon, a football shirt collector & fellow Scunthorpe United fan, has bought them as a job lot! Thank you Simon👍
Finances
Thanks to both our regular donor & 2 separate people, we now have moved the total in the bank to £376.28 as confirmed on our Finances page https://friendsofpakati.com/finances/
Brad Mell, Cuan Forrest & Chris Walker at Glanford Park/Attis Arena
Many thanks to Scunthorpe United for facilitating & hosting the meeting between Cuan Forrest & Friends of Pakati, a new partnership which we hope will lead to more help for Pakati schools
Coming soon…
Details of our meeting with Cuan, including a podcast
Developing new objectives & other possible changes
Greetings everyone once more! In a couple of recent blogs, I have hinted that there is something happening in the background here at Friends of Pakati. Today I can introduce briefly a new person on our team…
A very warm welcome to Friends of Pakati to Cuan Forrest! Below is a short piece by & about Cuan, who I only met very recently at our stall during the Scunthorpe United Community Day on 22nd March.
Cuan with his mother, Maybelle Forrest at the Community Day at Scunthorpe United
He had sought out the stall specifically to offer support to us in any way he can – something we are going to take him up on for sure! Our podcast host, Bradley Mell, and I are meeting him on 15th April to discuss things at length, with a podcast/vlog to follow soon after. In the meantime, have a read, & please share it across platforms with your contacts.
Our stall at Community Day qith my son Daniel, our friend Alison & myself
Friends of Pakati – Introduction
“I first discovered Friends of Pakati through their remarkable work supporting students at Pakati Schools in Zimbabwe. Meeting Chris, his son, and their colleagues at Scunthorpe United’s Community Day was a turning point that deepened my understanding of their mission. Since then, Chris and I have maintained regular contact, and I’m passionate about helping them achieve their fundraising goals and advance their important work.
Neil (a friend) and my mum (Maybelle Forrest) with Chris Walker helping to draw the raffleon Community Day in the Iron Bar
My connection to Zimbabwe runs deep. My grandmother, Julia Edwards, was born in Mukarakate in the Murewa district, while my grandfather Charles Langton Edwards owned the Shiri Yekutanga Bus Company operating throughout the Murewa District during the 1950s and 60s. My family lived in Arcadia, Salisbury (now Harare), and my father’s family hails from Ashington in Northumberland. My father was working as an engineer in what was then Rhodesia when he met my mother. I was born there before my parents and I relocated to the UK in 1979.
back row left to right (my friends Tom, James, Neil and Michael, front row their kids, Oliver, Polly, Clara and Nay Nay
These family ties to the region make Friends of Pakati’s mission especially meaningful to me. Their work resonates profoundly with my heritage, and I’m eager to contribute more significantly to their cause.
My friends kids again, Clara, Oliver, Polly and Nay Nay with Scunny Bunny & Hunny Bunny
Beyond our shared geographical connections, we also share a passion for football, particularly Scunthorpe United. This past season, I’ve had the privilege of supporting this extraordinary club in its ambition to achieve promotion to the National League and ultimately reclaim a position back in the EFL. The dedication and commitment I’ve witnessed from the owners, management team, players, and staff has been truly inspirational. I’m confident they’ll restore the club to it’s rightful place, on behalf of the fans and the wider Scunthorpe community.
My own football background harks back to the early 90’s includes playing at Nottingham Forest at both youth and professional levels, and an offer to represent Zimbabwe internationally. Interestingly, some of the players who were at Forest during my time, including Brian Laws and Chris Hope, went on to have successful careers at Scunthorpe United. During a loan period at Lincoln City, I commuted daily with Ian Barraclough, who later played for and managed Scunthorpe United.
With these interconnected threads between Zimbabwe, football, and Scunthorpe United, supporting Friends of Pakati feels like a natural calling. I’m genuinely excited about the opportunity to contribute to their mission and look forward to helping in any meaningful way I can.”
Cuan with friend Bina (left) and her daughter Jessica (right) outside the club ticket office& shop
Footnote – Cuan sent me this shortly afterwards:
“Hi Chris, just sent you a who’s who, they are my friends kids, yes on the day my mum and dad were there but for some reason my dad never made it onto any photographs as he spent most of the time in the Iron bar with his friends 😂”
Greetings, everyone! Welcome (back) to Friends of Pakati for another insight into life in rural Zimbabwe. This time, we are looking at how the people of the Pakati area live & work.
When I was getting ready to go to Zimbabwe as a newly qualified teacher, I was given a basic outline of what it was like at the school & the surrounding area. All Pakati students were day-scolars, coming from a local community of subsistence farmers – who grew crops for consumption, & any excess was sold in markets in nearby towns, or even as far as the capital, Harare, around 60 miles away.
One of the first of the local farmers I met was Mr Mdaziwa, who was widely respected in the area for his success using a mixture of traditional & modern farming methods, consistently growing a variety of crops, even in difficult seasons. I taught some of his children, the family lived close to the school & I enjoyed the their hospitality several times
Recently, I have been sent some pictures of this growing season in the area by a Friend of Pakati who comes from one of the local villages. Looks like it will be a bumper crop this year at harvest time across the area!
The photo & video above were taken in February this year, while those below were from early April in the same area
The principal crop is Maize, the staple diet of much of Southern Africa. It is used to make porridge, some beer, and what Zimbabweans call sadza. In th picture below it is shown with meat, vegatables & a relish/sauce and is eaten by hand.
A good season for the farmers usually means a good season for the schools too, particularly the Secondary, which charges fees which, although relatively low, can be too much in years of poor harvests. There have been droughts in the area, notably in the early 1990’s & early 2020’s
In 2022, I stayed at the home of one of my former student as Friends of Pakati delivered IT & other donations. This gave me an even clearer view of life in the area..
Pakati is an area I am always delighted to return to, a place I still feel at home in as I did back in 1989-1991.
Coming up next:
I now have the next podcast ready to publish, over the coming days – a great interview with our friend & donor Sharlom Chaitika! You can catch up on her history & recent exploits on the cast – it is one of our best for sure👍
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!
