UAE rugby club Arabian Knights lend a hand to CNCF with ‘life-changing’ work in Vietnam

Paul Radley delves into the work being done by UAE rugby club the Arabian Knights in Vietnam alongside the Christina Noble Children's Foundation.

A photo of the Arabian Knights rugby team during a past visit with the Christina Noble Children's Foundation. Ehrin Macksey / The National

On a clothing line on the top floor of the Christina Noble boys shelter in District 10 of Ho Chi Minh City, a variety of sports tops are hanging out to dry.

At the front is a black Real Madrid away shirt. Behind the Fly Emirates logo on the front is a watermarked dragon motif. It suggests this jersey may not have originated from the official club shop.

Next in line is a pale blue polo shirt with “golf in Dubai” stitched into the sleeve, which is odd. The 25 boys — all street children, some of whom are orphans — who are housed in this Spartan building are multi-talented, but it would be a surprise if any are keen golfers.

One teenager, for example, gives a spellbinding recital on a piano synthesiser. He is self-taught, and blind.

Meanwhile another, an eight-year-old afflicted by dwarfism, takes two bottles of water from his friend and presses them into the hands of the shelter’s guests.

Welcomes done, he bolts out of the room, looking intent on making mischief somewhere else. Instead, he turns up at the communal dining table, where he sits with an exercise book doing handwriting homework.

There are no golf clubs to be seen. The golf in Dubai shirt is a hint, though, to a strong link between the foundation and the UAE, and in particular a rugby club in Dubai.

The Arabian Knights, a relatively young club on the city’s rugby landscape with a booming junior section, have been long-term supporters of the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation (CNCF).

When the shelter had a leaking roof in 2010, the Knights raised funds for renovations. Some of their young players have visited the centre, taken over sports kit, organised rugby games with the boys and witnessed a life far removed from theirs.

Louise Palmer, who took over as the Knights chairwoman after the sudden death of her husband, Neil, earlier this year, said her club and the foundation in Vietnam are inextricably linked.

“We have a minis section with 550 children, and it is so good to be able to show them there are other children out there who need help and education,” she said.

“As a club, we want to help children. We are not out there every day saying ‘support charity’. We are out there playing rugby, just like every other club.

“But underneath, our ethos is to do something for somebody else. We don’t care about getting a bigger pitch, it is all about what we can do for CNCF.”

Rugby has yet to catch on amongst the children from the boys shelter, though not through want of trying by the Knights.

Instead, the boys live for their Saturday evening football sessions, which are played on a 4G, rubber-crumb artificial-turf pitch nearby.

The boys ride bicycles to get there or get lifts on the back of mopeds, the ubiquitous mode of transport in the city.

James Burrell was captain of the Knights’ age-group teams before leaving the UAE to attend university in the north of England.

In 2011, then 17, he was part of one of the first tour groups from the Dubai club to travel to Ho Chi Minh City. He said the trip was “life-changing”.

“We took a load of sports gear and rugby kit out to the shelter and showed the boys how to play,” Burrell said, speaking in Dubai this week before returning to the UK to study.

“It was life-changing for me and all the other lads on the trip. It really opened our eyes to what is going on there.

“We were worried we would go out there and find it depressing to see these kids struggling, but it was not like that at all.

“It doesn’t matter what background you are from. If you step onto the field with your mates, you feel about sport exactly the same. It creates a bond with each other.”

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