Standard Chartered hosts third ‘Go Forward’ camp

Standard Chartered hosted the third ‘Go Forward’ Soccer camp at Nawagampura Grounds recently. Inner city youth between the ages of eight to 15 of totalling 130, participated in this camp, bringing the cumulative figure of such youth afforded the opportunity to access financial literacy as well as soccer skills, up to approximately 565.

Standard Chartered’s Go Forward initiative in partnership with Liverpool Football Club (LFC) to discover soccer talent and afford opportunities for financial literacy to inner city communities was launched in Sri Lanka in September 2012 at the Maligawatte Municipal Council Grounds.

Standard Chartered Bank Head of Origination and Client Coverage Colin Pawley, who attended the camp said: “Ninety boys between the ages of eight to 15 of promising talent were identified and selected from among the 500 plus participants of the soccer camps, to advance to the next round.

“We aim to reach out to 1,000 Sri Lanka’s inner city youth in this way and provide opportunities for them to leverage on their talent to access a more promising future.”

The ‘Go Forward’ initiative’s ultimate aim is to identify and select a team representing the top talent from within this group and two final teams will be selected. The handpicked youth will receive special coaching every weekend to further improve their soccer skills, as well as opportunities to participate in tournaments.

The best of these players the Sri Lanka ‘Go Forward’ team will thereafter play matches against school and club teams.

Standard Chartered’s ‘Go Forward’ initiative is carried out together with the Football Federation of Sri Lanka and ‘Thaarunyata Hetak’.

Standard Chartered is the sponsor of LFC since July 2010. Since becoming sponsors, the Bank has teamed up with LFC to raise awareness and funds for avoidable blindness and visual impairment in addition to its collaboration on the ‘Go Forward’ initiative.