NOTTINGHAM Rugby and Nottingham Forest have joined forces with South Nottingham College for a campaign to bring sport to poor townships in South Africa.

Balls To Poverty will see 34 students travel to the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape and to Cape Town to distribute more than 3,000 footballs and rugby balls to deprived communities next year.

Football and rugby coaching sessions will also be given to thousands of South African children from these areas.

Since the campaign launched in 2004, it has helped distribute more than 18,000 footballs and 200 rugby balls in South Africa.

Government officials from the Western Cape Province estimate 450,000 youngsters have had access to football and rugby games in these townships since 2005, and that 20,000 have received coaching.

Student teams will also compete in under-19 football and rugby tournaments against professional opposition, including Ajax and South African team Kaizer Chiefs.

The campaign was created by Joe Sargison, director of athlete performance programmes at South Nottingham College, after he visited the country.

He said he was touched by the poverty but inspired by the difference he felt he could make.

Since then he has taken 71 students to South Africa.

He said: "It has been a great honour to have seen the positive effect of our project on the young people at our college.

"What started as a one-off experience has developed into a project that has won national awards and has seen students travel to some of the most deprived townships imaginable in South Africa."

The next batch of students will visit ten Nottingham primary schools to teach youngsters about the Balls To Poverty campaign before setting off on the trip.

Mr Sargison said: "Schoolchildren from inner-city Nottingham primary and secondary schools are now contributing to the development of this project."

Once again this year, 12 student rugby players from the college will be among those going on the trip.

Neil Fowkes, co-ordinator for the project at Nottingham Rugby Club, said: "The Balls To Poverty experience can inspire student rugby athletes to positively affect their own communities and help them to become new coaches.

"Above all it adds to the student's education and enables them to put the lessons they are learning into 'real life' situations.

"The involvement of the rugby team in the 2009 project alongside student football athletes will be very positive, as players can learn a lot from each other and apply the lessons to the development of both sports."

To go on the trip, students must be performing well academically, attend five fundraising events and raise a minimum of £500.

This year's total fundraising target is £40,000, and the footballs and rugby balls will be of a higher quality than in previous years.

Logos of Nottingham Forest, the Players' Football Association (PFA), South Nottingham College and Balls To Poverty will appear on the balls.

The South Nottingham College football team will play in Nottingham Forest kits and will be highlighting the campaign at Forest's forthcoming home fixtures.

Also supporting the project are the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.

Students there have selected the campaign as their chosen varsity charity this year.

Money will be raised from gate receipts during the varsity series, which sees the universities compete against each other in a variety of sports during the academic year.

The party departs in April and will visit six townships in Eastern Cape and Cape Town.

michael.greenwell@nottinghameveingpost.co.uk