Child survivors of conflict vote Sir Bobby Charlton their greatest hero!

In a rehabilitation centre in Jordan Syrian refugee children undergoing physical and psychological therapy have called Sir Bobby Charlton their greatest hero.

To celebrate the veteran footballer’s eighty-second birthday the children undertaking the art therapy course in the Sir Bobby Charlton Rehabilitation Centre in Amman have drawn him an enormous birthday card to thank him for the humanitarian activities of his charity Find A Better Way – and the trustees of Find A Better Way are also thanking him by changing the name of the organisation to ‘The Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation for Victims of Conflict’.

Lou McGrath, Chief Executive of the charity explained:

“After eight years of incredible work we felt the charity had ‘Found the Better Way’ with our focus on making lives better for those impacted by conflict – particularly the children. 

Through our funding partnerships with local NGOs we can ensure that appropriate long term therapy and care can be delivered to those whose lives have been torn apart by violence and injury. 

The trustees and I felt that Sir Bobby’s humanitarian legacy should live on as long as his football legacy. We felt naming the charity after him would keep his name associated with this work because it is a very sad fact that even after conflict is over there will still be thousands of victims who need long term support. The Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation will be there to help them.” 

It was during a visit to Cambodia that Sir Bobby saw the impact war continued to have on communities. On his return he was determined to find new ways of providing help and support, not only to those whose lives had been affected by conflict, but also those organisations who undertook the clearance of landmines and other explosive ordnance.

Find A Better Way was founded in 2011 with three key programmes, Research, Education and Humanitarian, with the idea to speed up the clearance of landmines it concentrated its original efforts on research into