Hari Kieft

When Ashley got to hear about an exceptionally brave and extrodinary little boy called Hari Kieft, he wanted to help.

Little Hari was born 10 weeks prematurely and spent the first year of his life in and out of hospital.  During this time he was diagnosed with two heart conditions and Spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

At the moment, as hard as Hari tries, he cannot stand or walk unaided.  His condition impacts on his balance and movement – but there is hope for 2 year old Hari.

He has been accepted for a specialized operation in America costing £45,000 as the operation is not available in the UK on the NHS.   Hari will receive a Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy operation, where he will undertake major spinal surgery that will loosen the nerves in his legs.  This Rhizotomy operation will change Hari’s life.

WillsWorld is supporting the fundraising campaign to help raise the necessary funds for Hari to have the operation and a special fundraising evening has been organised for January 13th 2012.

The fundraising evening will feature guest appearances from Ashley and fellow Swansea City star Nathan Dyer, Football Freestyle Star Billy Wingrove and a whole host of other special guests at the Manor Park Country House in Clydach.

Tickets are priced at just £10 for Adults and £7.50 for under 16′s and can be purchased online now.

If you can’t attend the evening, but would like to make a donation to Hari’s Fund, then please use the ‘Donation’ button below.

Alternatively you can make donations to Hari’s fundraising appeal via your bank using the following details:

Account name: Hari Kieft
Account number: 24699060
Sort code: 30-80-76

Any donation you make will help make a difference to Hari.

If you’d like to know more about this amazing little boy, then visit his website at www.harisfirststeps.co.uk

Donning a chef’s black a white kit, Ashley put some smiles on the faces of the young children from the Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group with an fun filled pizza party!  Even fellow Swan Fede Bessone popped along to pass on his pizza making tips.

Ashley said “I’m just trying to put a smile on the children’s faces. That’s the best thing – seeing them have a good time and having a laugh with them.”

The event gave the children (and Ashley!) a unique opportunity to make their own pizza’s complete with their choice of toppings, before getting a chance to sample their hand made masterpieces later.

Whilst the aroma of the cooking pizza wafted around the restaurant, the kids were given a guided tour of the chef’s kitchen and ice cold storage fridge!

With the tour completed, it was time to put everyone’s pizza to the taste test.

Whilst Ashley felt his pizza was premier league material, all of the children had their own ideas as to whom had the prize winning pizza… so they all celebrated by making some colourful and extremely tasty cupcakes.

The smiles on the children’s faces showed just how much fun they’d had and what a wonderful success the evening had been.

Whether or not the ‘Ashley Williams Premier League Pizza’ makes it onto the Pizza Express menu remains a mystery however.

A special thank you to all the staff at Pizza Express in Swansea, especially Claire (Area Manager), Paul (Restaurant Manager) and Paul (Chef) for helping making the event a success.

If you have a children’s charity which you think could benefit from a WillsWorld event, then get in touch with us via our online contact form.

England meet arch-rivals Wales at Wembley tonight separated by more than 100 places in the world rankings – and the divide between the players on the field is also a wide one.

While world superstar Wayne Rooney earns a reported £250,000 a week, his direct opponent Ashley Williams receives around 5 per cent of that in his pay packet.

However, Wales’ defensive rock on the international stage uses some of his Premier League wages in an entirely different way from most at that level.

As well as starring in Swansea City’s backline which has kept two clean sheets in the club’s opening three top-flight games (and not to forget Wales’ shock Euro 2012 win over Montenegro on Friday night), the muscular centre-back also cites setting up his own charity and football camp as current pastimes.

A succession of events over the last 12 months has allowed the 27-year-old to touch the hearts of the general public in his home town of Tamworth and in Swansea, and mark him out from the usual multi-millionaire plying his trade in the top flight.

Now Williams’ long-term aim is to reach out to a much wider audience by developing his burgeoning reputation as a philanthropist footballer.

Williams said: “I’ve always wanted to give something back to the community and to help others. Now I am in a position where I feel I have a great opportunity to help. It’s nice to put football in a positive light as most people don’t like to see the good side, but most of us are good lads.

“We are just the same as other people in any job. I like to help people out and make them feel good. I get a good feeling from that.

“I’d like to do charity work now while I’m still current rather than when I retire. People may think I’m a role model, but I don’t see myself like that, I’m just me.

“But I hope what I’m doing connects me with more people across Wales and the rest of the UK.”

Williams already has an army of support through his ability between the white lines, but that level of backing away from the game has only increased following the advent of the social networking site Twitter.

At the last check, Williams had a tally of 23,262 followers, which is slightly larger than the 20,500 capacity crowd he performs in front of on a fortnightly basis at the Liberty Stadium. But the process of giving “something back”, in Williams’ own words, began following a routine conversation with wife Vanessa last December.

That chat led to the creation of his own charity, “Willsworld”, and soon after, a personal website, www.willsworld.org.uk – dedicated to helping those in need – was created by Swansea season-ticket holder Duncan Thomas, free of charge, to expand his venture.

“My missus and I had been interested in doing some charity work for a while,” added Williams.

“It all started last year when we thought we’d help out some kids who weren’t going to receive any presents at Christmas.

“We spoke to social services and the deal was we brought the presents and they brought along the kids. Afterwards, I received messages on Twitter from parents and kids saying the event had made their day.

“We then received 30 tickets to take the Bravehearts [a pan-disability football club in Swansea] to a wrestling show before raising £2,500 to allow the reverend of the club to repair his church. Every little helps.”

The requests kept flooding in on a daily basis so Williams asked prospective charities to present their case through Twitter.

Williams added: “It is nice to help people, but at the start, I actually found it hard to find out who I should help. So the idea of people contacting me through Twitter with their different causes came about.

“It’s my charity, and we like to set up an event every couple of months. Twitter has been good because it’s a nice way of opening things up and between that and the website, some of the stories have been incredible.

“In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had an email off a lad whose dad died in the recent explosion in Pembroke and another one off a woman asking if I could do anything for a boy, aged seven, who had lost his mum. I said I will bring him to a game after the international break. How can you pass an opportunity like that up?”

On the field, Williams was handed the honour of leading Swansea out for the first Premier League game staged in Wales against Wigan Athletic on 20 August. He comments on how “proud” he was, but his football life has not always been that easy.

Born in Wolverhampton before spending his childhood growing up in the town of Tamworth, home of the Reliant Robin, Williams was rejected by West Bromwich Albion.

His professional career began at Hednesford Town, now in the Northern Premier League alongside the newly-formed FC United of Manchester and Chester FC, before he navigated his way through the divisions.

Stockport County, then in the Football League, laid the next foundation for Williams, who went on to claim the inaugural north-west Player of the Year award in 2007 ahead of stellar stars Steven Gerrard, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney.

A year later, the Wales star, who qualifies through his mother, joined Swansea in a £400,000 deal and that business now looks an absolute bargain with Williams captaining Wales on four occasions during his 27-cap career to date.

Williams said: “I’d like to think I’m pretty grounded. It’s probably because of where I’ve come from. I have played in all the leagues.”

Not content with his work off the field, Williams wanted to extend himself during Swansea’s play-off winning season last term by announcing the formation of his own football camp.

And in the days leading up to the goalless draw with Sunderland before the current international break, Williams, after taking part in three camps in Tamworth, held a first session in Swansea. But what forced the Midlander to make such a commitment?

“I’m from Tamworth,” he explained. “A lot of people who are from the town will stay in the town. They won’t do a lot and have a small-minded mentality.

“But I wanted to promote the dream. I ask people, what’s their dream? They may want to be an actor or a PE teacher, but whatever you want to do, you can go and do it.

“There was one point where no one thought I’d be in the Premier League or an international. But my story shows you can do it.

“It’s also great that children can go somewhere for four-and-a-half hours a day and run about in a safe environment rather than sit at home on their X-boxes.

“That’s definitely a worry for today’s society. When I was young, we used to go out to play football in the morning until we got called back for our dinner.

“I spoke to the current headmaster at my old high school and he told me at the time that Tamworth was the second [most] obese town in the UK.

“So we’ve tried to teach the children things they may not learn at school. We asked the parents to bring healthy food for the kids and the coaches do a lunch inspection.

“We had great reports back. The children went away, telling their parents, ‘We don’t want chips, we want pasta. And we don’t want fizzy drinks, we want squash’. I’m using the fact I am a professional footballer and this is what Ashley Williams eats.

“We have had great feedback from the parents. The children just have to show enthusiasm, a good attitude and enjoy themselves.

“They are exercising and learning at the same time and the soccer camp is a place where I’d like my young boy, Raphael, to come to. I’ll probably always have the soccer camps.

“I don’t do this for the publicity or to change the perception of footballers as people will always think what they want to think. I do it to help others.”

Williams will need his own help against Rooney and Co when he returns to the scene of his greatest triumph. The date, 30 May, 2011, is etched in Swansea folklore following the 4-2 play-off victory over Reading.

“I can’t wait to go back,” beamed Williams. “Wembley will bring back the memories of probably the greatest day of my career.

“Regardless of the scoreline, I’ll enjoy the stage because of where I have come from. Who would have thought that I would get this chance? I worked hard to get here so I will enjoy”.

To find out more about Ashley’s Soccer Camps, go to www.ashleywilliamssoccercamp.co.uk

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of independent.co.uk. The original article can be found here.

Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group, is a community group working in Swansea. The intention of SBASSG is to provide a stable and open community where refugees and asylum seekers can get together, share with each other and be part of a community.

SBASSG operates with no paid staff and is run entirely on the generousity of volunteers. The project provides a lot to the people it serves, volunteers spend time teaching English, looking after children and helping individuals to integrate into their local community to name just a few things they do!

AG Swansea went down to a drop-in session that SBASSG run with Ashley Williams. Ashley was gifted a whole load of toys through his charity WillsWorld and AG Swansea were able to help relocate those toys. As soon as Ashley turned up with a few bags of the toys the children swarmed around trying to find the best things there. Ashley and myself (Doey) did try putting a slide together but struggled, so we left it to the kids… Needless to say they put it together with ease.

We then spent a bit of time hanging out with the kids upstairs while Ashley got challenged to “come and try to tackle me” from one of the boys, while Ashley’s young son was the centre of attention for all of the girls there! A couple of photos and autographs and before we knew it, that was the end of the session…

The plan is to go back there sometime in the coming months with more toys and clothes to share with those who need them! If you feel that you can help then please get in touch with us, we’d love to hear from you. Thank you to Ashley and Vanessa for their support again today.

To find out more about the Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group, go to www.hafan.org

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of AG Swansea. The original article can be found here.

Now Ashley Williams has put a smile on the faces of a group of youngsters after springing a surprise on them.

The Swansea City defender organised an unforgettable day for the eight young people who thought they were being taken to Liberty Stadium to see the team take on Ipswich.

But thanks to Ashley, who set up the WillsWorld Charity to help disadvantaged youngsters, they were given a unique behind the scenes tour and left with a souvenir.

Swansea-based charity AG, which aims to bring people together for the good of everyone, especially the less fortunate, approached WillsWorld to see if it could help.

AG outreach worker Jonathan Thomas said he and another supervisor took eight young people to the stadium. “They thought they were just going to see the game,” he explained.

“They didn’t have a clue what was going on. Then I told them we had the tickets as a gift from Ashley and showed them we had front row seats.

“They were so excited, especially when we started filtering more information through to them.”

The star-struck visitors were treated to watching the post-match press conference with manager Brendan Rodgers, given a tour of the changing rooms and tunnel and were given a free pair of Swans shorts as a souvenir.

They also spent some time pitchside with Ashley, who answered their questions and shared some club secrets with them.

“The whole club was so accommodating,” said Jonathan.

“Everything was perfect from start to finish. The boys didn’t go in through the turnstiles but through the reception area. They were treated as if they were the stars for the day.

Generous

“More often than not football players are featured in the media as overpaid, spoiled and ungrateful.

“Although there are probably a fair share of these guys, in amongst them are some respectable, generous and kind-hearted role models for young people.

“Thanks to the partnership of WillsWorld and AG, a group of young people had a day they will never forget.

“They mixed it with the stars, got to celebrate four Swansea City goals and even had the pleasure of meeting Ashley and Vanessa’s beautiful new son.”

Jonathan said he hoped AG would be able to organise more events with Wills World and other charities and organisations in the city. “We’re hoping this is just the start,” he added.

To find out more about Ashley’s charity, WillsWorld, go to www.willsworld.org.uk

To find out more about AG, go to agswansea.org

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of Northcliffe Media Ltd. The original article can be found here.

Over the last few weeks and months AG Swansea have had the pleasure of building up a good friendship with Swansea City FC player Ashley Williams. Ashley and his wife Vanessa have recently established a charity called “WillsWorld” with an aim to benefit and have a positive impact on the lives of young people.

After some communication back and forth between WillsWorld and AG both felt it would be worthwhile to team up and make something happen. Ashley kindly organised some tickets while AG found some deserving young people to benefit from such a great opportunity.

The guys received star treatment throughout the day as if front row seats weren’t enough! The boys were treatedto watching the post match press conference featuring Brendan Rodgers, a tour of the changing rooms and tunnel, and even a free pair of shorts each from Sue the kit lady. (Thanks Sue!) The boys then got to spend a bit of time pitchside with the big man himself Ashley Williams who answered questions and shared some of clubs secrets! Ashley didn’t confirm whether Nathan Dyer was in fact Lionel Messi in disguise or not though.

Thanks to the partnership of WillsWorld and AG, a group of young people had a day they will never forget. They mixed it with the stars, got to celebrate 4 Swansea City goals and even had the pleasure of meeting Ashley and Vanessa’s beautiful new son. Today will definitely be a day to remember for all involved, and hopefully the future will see the friendship between WillsWorld and AG grow and many more young people being positively impacted across the city.

A special thanks go to a few people including Ashley and Vanessa for connecting with AG through WillsWorld, to Geoff who looked after the boys so well and was very generous through the day, to Sue who was very busy finding shorts as a gift to the boys, and to all of the Swansea City FC staff and players who were very welcoming and friendly and played a role in making it a great day. Thank you for everything, you made it a really great day!

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of AG Swansea. The original article can be found here.

The show took place at Theatr Elli, Llanelli where doors opened at 7pm and the show started at 7.30pm. Alan also very generously gave us complimentary backstage passes allowing the Swansea City Bravehearts to meet the wrestlers after the show and get all of their autographs.

At times it was more exciting to watch the children’s reactions to the show then the show itself, they really enjoyed themselves. Ashley got himself involved after receiving a bit of friendly abuse from Mean Tommy Dean, a Cardiff fan, when he entered the ring to stand on the defeated wrestler.

It was all good fun and the boys made up after the show!

Here is a slideshow of the pictures taken at the event…

If you’d like to see more pictures from other events then take a look at the WillsWorld picture gallery.

To keep up to date with future WillsWorld events, simply follow @AshWills84 on Twitter or ‘Like’ the WillsWorld Facebook page.

Street Football Wales are a voluntary group working in partnership with Gwalia Care and Support in delivering a street football project aimed at promoting social inclusion amongst some of Wales’ most vulnerable people.

Having missed out on attending the Homeless world Cup in Rio last year due to a lack of funding, being informed that there is no place for Welsh homeless footballers at the Paris tournament was heartbreaking for all involved.

However, Street Football Wales are on the reserve list and remain hopeful of being there when the tournament kicks off in August. In the meantime they continue to focus on developing the grass roots programme which is entering its 7th year and have been boosted by Welsh International and Swans star Ashley Williams who has pledged his support for the project. Ashley is actively involved in a range of charity work, including his own charitable venture ‘Wills World’ and is fast gaining a reputation as a philanthropist footballer.

Ashley was made aware of Street Football Wales after seeing a feature on BBC Sport Wales in 2009. “It stuck in my head” said Ashley, “Then it was brought to my attention again about a month ago via twitter. I spoke to Keri and was all for getting involved and helping out”.

Ashley shares the disappointment of the project regarding not being offered a place at the Homeless World Cup. “I feel it’s a shame that Wales haven’t been allocated a place especially as they were at the first ever Homeless World Cup. It’s a shame for all the players and staff concerned. I think it’s very important for the players to have something big to look forward to – I know from my own experiences that something to look forward to and to train towards gives people a lot of hope and excitement. I hope that Wales can get a place in this World Cup. As its only in Paris I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard for Wales to get there and equip themselves well at the tournament.”

Keri Harris, chairman of Street Football Wales is delighted to have him on board and Ashley is in good company in supporting the project which also has backing from a number of AM’s, Game On and media corporations. “Ashley’s support is fantastic” says Harris. “As a respected Welsh sportsman, he’s given us a lift at a difficult time. To have a Welsh International offering his backing and also understanding the impact of projects such as SFW is extremely encouraging.” Street Football Wales has never been short of support of a non-financial nature, with key people from all sectors recognising the value of the project, including policy makers at the Welsh Assembly Government and homelessness executives.

Harris continues, “Street Football Wales has developed strong and important links with significant partners over the years – the barrier to development has always been no more than financial, which is frustrating but which is a barrier we will defeat. The people of Wales deserve to have access to this unique service and we will not give up.”

An application for three year funding has been submitted to a National funding body in partnership with Gwalia Care and Support and a response is eagerly awaited by all at Street Football Wales. Ashley Williams summarises the impact that a positive outcome will have “I think it would be wonderful if the bid for funding were to be successful. I’m very passionate about Street Football Wales and think it’s important to give socially excluded people hope and a passion for something. Playing for a football team offers an opportunity for people to make friends for life, to feel part of something and important. This funding would be unbelievably important to us and what we are trying to achieve we are keeping our fingers crossed that we win this bid.”

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of Gwalia Care and Support. The original article can be found here.

But that has not stopped one Welsh star taking time out to spread festive cheer as he bids to become the “next Noel Edmonds”.

In a move that marks him out from other money-grabbing millionaire footballers, Swansea City defender Ashley Williams recently set up his own charitable foundation called #WillsWorld via his popular Twitter account.

He kicked the foundation off by handing out Christmas presents to deprived children with pregnant wife Vanessa at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium last month.

And the Swans centre-back admits he took inspiration from Noel Edmonds’ show Noel’s Christmas Presents – a TV slot where deprived kids are rewarded with dream gifts.

After watching the show, Williams tweeted: “I’m coming for your job Noel!”, although he revealed to Wales on Sunday philanthropy is something he has been interested in for a while.

He said: “I always watch that programme.

“But it is not just that; we have wanted to set the foundation up for half a year now.

“Through Twitter, people can get involved more.

“If people know anyone going through unforeseen circumstances, we will try and raise some money and get people involved through Twitter every now and then.”

Williams’ Twitter account is followed by 3,000 people and he realised he could generate goodwill – and money for good causes – after Cardiff fans made him a cheeky proposal.

“We are doing it through Twitter because obviously a lot more people can reach me,” he said.

“People were saying: ‘I will give you £50 to wear a Cardiff shirt.’

“And then others were saying: ‘I will give you £100 not to wear a Cardiff shirt.’

“People want to help and what we will be doing in the future will be setting up a website where people can put in a tenner.”

Williams said #WillsWorld would try to help one good cause at a time and that he was open to suggestions on his Twitter account @AshWills84.

“It could be anything really,” he said.

“It could be children, adult issues or animal rights. Maybe if we can just help one person at a time.

“It is not about me saying other footballers should do it, but the situation I am in now means I can reach a lot of people and I am just trying to help people out.”

And Williams is thinking big for 2011, saying he would like to roll out #WillsWorld further afield and help change people’s perception of the modern-day footballer.

He said: “I live in the real world. I know what happens; I don’t live in fairytale land.

“We did it down here in Swansea and it will mostly be in Wales, but it could be anywhere.

“It is all across the country.”

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of Media Wales Ltd. The original article can be found here.

The Swans defender and his wife Vanessa launched their own charity project called WillsWorld over Christmas with the aim of helping out deserving and under-privileged children in the community.

Ashley invited 23 local children and their group of social workers to the Liberty Stadium where he not only gave them a guided tour of the dressing rooms and pitch, but also booked Santa Clause to give out a host of presents to the smiling children.

Ashley and Vanessa paid for the presents themselves with a bit of help from Tyrell from saabthrusport and Paul from Pendragon Toys.

Ashley and nine other Swans players also donated presents to the Mr X Christmas Appeal.

“It was a brilliant day,” explained Ashley. “My wife Vanessa and I just thought it up a couple of weeks ago.

“We just want to give something back to the community. I have always wanted to do something like this and now I am in a position where I can help.

“It was a lot of hard work, but just seeing the smiles on the children’s faces made it all worthwhile.

“The club has been very supportive of the idea and we are planning to do more events with the WillsWorld charity throughout the year.

“A lot of footballers do good charity work and hopefully we did our own little bit to help the children have a good start to their Christmas.”

‘Vanessa, who is expected her first child this year, added: “I think it makes it more important to help other children if we are having a child of our own.

“The lifestyle we can provide for our child will be good, so we just wanted to give something back.

“The party went very well and their faces were brilliant when they saw Father Christmas.

“Claire Edwards Matthews, of Swansea Social Services, who helped organise the event along with Eirian Wyn, said: “The children loved every minute of it.

“It is not about the gifts they have received, it is about the experience they have had at the Liberty Stadium and meeting Ashley, his wife and Father Christmas.

“The children here have had support from social services for a lot of different reasons and are worthy of all the extra happiness over Christmas.

“They can tell all their friends at school they have been to the stadium and met Father Christmas and Ashley — it is great.

“A club spokesman said: “All the children really enjoyed themselves. The players at the club do a lot of work in the community, most of which is never heard about.

“As a club we were really moved when we heard what Ashley was planning. As a person he makes us proud – on and off the field.”More importantly, I am sure he added a bit of magic to the children’s Christmases.”

Ashley and Vanessa are planning more WillsWorld charity events throughout the year to bring a positive impact to deserving and under privileged children in the community.

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of Swansea City Football Club. The original article can be found here.