Work Experience blog: Football with the residents

Posted by momtaz at 11pm

This Year LiC have been welcoming students to complete their 2 weeks work placements at our offices. In september we had 3 young people join us from Langdon Park School in Poplar East London.As part of their experience we have asked the students to share their experience for others to see, heres their blog.

‘On Tuesday 13^th September, we played a friendly football match with the residents of Leopold Estate at a 5-a-side pitch in Mile End Stadium. We first met up in front of Leaders in Community (LiC) head office at 9:15, and then went to the residents. There were 3 residents in the beginning, but later we met up with the rest of the residents who came to the pitch, 9 people in total. LiC usually work with the youth in the community but after years of success with them they have decided to also help the older generation. The aim of the project was to reach out to the older generation and get them to be more active and healthy because in the local community there are a lot of illnesses, like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, etc.

 Once we got to the pitch our mentor Abdul Miah went through a few exercises and warm-ups. After that he picked 2 captains and the teams were selected. Me and my fellow work experience friend were on the same team .The game started well with the residents passing and taking shots at goal, they all gave each other chances even to those who were less skilled. Overall, all the residents scored at least 1 goal each. You could see the residents enjoyed what they were doing during the sweaty 2 hour match and were looking forward to next Tuesday when they will do it again. “The residents are more active than me”, fellow work experience colleague Jawad Hasan said after the match.

The football with the residents is part of a Poplar HARCA programme but is being delivered by LiC. The residents there were not only Bangladeshi but there were other residents from different ethnicities and backgrounds, there was also a variety of ages. LiC also do a lot more with the residents they take them to the gym on Wednesdays and swimming on Fridays. LiC also do work with women, children and have other activities for elderly people if you do not fancy football like chair aerobics, yoga, Wii fitness, fashion and design, badminton, Capoeira and violin lessons. All the activities are free for residents.’ By Parvez and Jawad 15 (From Langdon Park School in Poplar, East London)

If you would like to join them or get more information please contact Abdul on: 020 7987 8796 or 0743 2762112 or .abdul-lic@live.com