Sheikha Al Thani meets with SATUC’s Moroccan partner charity. On Wednesday 29th April SATUC founder Sheikha Al Thani welcomed Grace Ashley, Project Support Officer of the Moroccan Children’s Trust into SATUC’s London offices for the first meeting in person between the two charities.

Ms. Ashley was very pleased to meet Sheikha in person and thanked her for the wonderful work she is doing through the 2015 SATUC Cup for the Moroccan Children’s Trust based in Taroudant in southern Morocco. Ms. Ashley embraced the partnership between SATUC and MCT wholeheartedly and expressed her hope that this year’s partnership at the SATUC Cup marks the start of a long and fruitful relationship together. Ms Ashley spoke about how excited the children at the MCT were to be flying out to Cairo and competing at the tournament against teams from 8 different nations – many have never left Taroudant, let alone been to a different country so this represents a unique opportunity for them. So keen are they to impress that they have been training and practicing non-stop so they can give a good account of themselves when the tournament kicks off.

During the meeting, Sheikha called Moroccan 2015 SATUC Cup ambassador Aziz Bouderbala to introduce him to Ms. Ashley with a view to the Moroccan star visiting the children in Taroudant. Speaking to Ms. Ashley, Mr. Bouderbala confirmed that he would be delighted to visit the boys at the MCT and that it would be his honor and privilege to spend time with them. Despite being based in Fes, an 8-hour journey from Taroudant, Mr. Bouderbala said he would promise to spend some time coaching the boys and getting to know them. The boys were hugely excited by the news since it is not every day that a former Morocco national team star and runner-up for the African Footballer of the Year pays a visit to them – now that the channel of communication is open between MCT and Mr. Bouderbala thanks to Sheikha’s introduction, we hope this will be the first of many visits.

Ms Ashley left the meeting very happy with this new partnership with Mr Bouderbala which is so exciting for the boys and also very pleased at having strengthened MCT’s relationship with SATUC ahead of the 2015 upcoming SATUC Cup.

Sheikha looks forward to speaking with the boys at the MCT in the coming week details of which will be announced in due course.