Sunderland AFC North Africa Supporters Branch

I need to take my hat off to the people of Sunderland and Sunderland football club themselves who chipped in over 150 Sunderland footy shirts for us to hand out to the people of the little Moroccan village of El Jebah in the foothills of the Rif Mountains.

Whats it all about ?

As part of the newly formed Dental Mavericks Charity http://www.dentalmavericks.org/ who recently visited Morocco to help treat the mountain children of El Jebah I (Mick the dentist from Sunderland - Olivers) thought it would be nice to hand out more than toothbrushes to the locals.

On our visit last yeat we treated like Santa Claus as we gave the children crayons and colouring books in a village where gifts are thin on the ground.

Like most Sunderland supporters I have a cupboard full of out of date or out of size Sunderland shirts. Thinking it might be a nice gift for the children and, as it turned out the adults too, we loaded up our suitcases with the red and white treasures. It should be noted that we could have taken hundreds more but for the disappointing response of Easy Jet who wanted nearly £300 extra suitcase tariff for what was in effect a charity donation. Black mark EasyJet even with our protestations.

With the strength of the Premier league brand, the kids instantly recognised the red and white stripes, even in this isolated African village and frenzy of locals suddenly appeared. From the village mayor to the local elders, a Sunderland shirt even out of date, carries a bit of cudos out in North Africa.

It quickly became clear that demand was going to exceed supply as what seemed like half of the Rif mountain Berber Tribe seemed to join the queue.

Still a hundred new Sunderland supporters wasn't a bad start and maybe when we head back to Morocco next year to continue with the dental visit I may be able to convince easyJet that a little genorosity in their aircraft hold could generate a whole lot of goodwill from the kids of El Jebah.