Body and Sole - Football Boots

Body and Sole, the Incorporation of Cordiners in Glasgow's own charity, has collaborated with the Western Recreation Trust to provide football boots for thirty of the Refugees and Asylum-Seekers who are learning English in the daily classes run at St Aloysius Church in the City Centre. The boots were obtained for us at a very good price by Ex-Deacon Jim Roulston of Bar One Clothing Ltd.

The Incorporation of Cordiners in Glasgow is more than 500 years old and in former times regulated the shoemaking and leatherwork trade in the City. It is now a modern charity and has its own special project called Body and Sole, the brainchild of late deacon Dr Iain Lennox and Deacon Professor Ewan MacDonald OBE, which aims to provide footwear for sports and outward-bound activities for people, mostly schoolchildren, who could not otherwise participate.



The Western Recreation Trust was founded in 1973 with funds from the Public House Trust (Glasgow District) which was formed in the 19th Century to combat alcohol abuse.  The funds within that Trust came from the sale of pubs and hotels that had made their money from the sale of alcohol.  The Trustees use the funds today for a number of different purposes, but one of the major functions is to help young people find other creative and healthy things to do with their time than consume alcohol.

The ESOL Classes for refugees and asylum-seekers were the brainchild of Father Tim Curtis SJ, Jesuit parish priest. More than 250 people, from countries such as South Sudan, Syria, Eritrea and Iraq, come to the classes five mornings a week and are taught by an enthusiastic team of volunteers led by Kevin Wyber and Margaret McGlennan.

The football training takes place in Super Soccer in Scotland Street, courtesy of Raza and Farouk.


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