From a quiet revelation in Earl's Court to nineteen years of making memories. This is the story of how the children
became the teachers.
Our original slogan was Inspiring children to be. After nineteen years, I've come to believe it should be read the other way round. Inspiring adults to be. Because every child I've worked with has taught me something about courage, about resilience. They are not the ones being inspired in this story.
We are.
The first I learned was in Brompton cemetery. I grew up in Earl's Court, and as far as I knew, there were no green spaces near my home. So my friends, my brothers, and I made one. Playing football and climbing trees. It felt like freedom.
It was only later I learned the truth: there were beautiful gardens all around us. They had simply been locked. That was the first time I felt anger at unfairness. The first time I understood that play and green space were things some children had, and others didn't, because of where they were born.
The second thing I learned from my mum. On Saturdays, she took me to The Gateway Club, a centre for young people with learning disabilities. The young people called her "mum." They called me "brother." We were a family.
One of the young people at The Gateway Club was a woman called Nicola. Sometimes she became angry and defiant. I watched my mum, time and time again, calm her down. Not with rules. With humour. She'd make Nicola laugh, and the storm would pass.
My mum was practising trauma-informed care 20 years before anyone called it that. She was teaching me, without a word, that the people most likely to be misunderstood are the ones who most need someone to stay patient and kind.
In 2006, I travelled the world for a year. One moment has never left me. I watched a group of boys in India playing cricket on a patch of dust with a battered bat and stumps that looked passed down through generations. They had nothing and they were playing as if it were a Test match. Competitive, gleeful, fully alive. They had taken a few pieces of wood and made something sacred.
I came home to Earl's Court in 2007 and looked at the children in my own community. They were surrounded by facilities, but most of it was unaffordable. The Indian children had nothing and made it everything. The London children had everything around them and couldn't reach it. That was the moment Solidarity Sports began. Our first project was Six Weeks of Football Fun. Twenty children. No cost. No barriers. Just play.
In June 2017, the Grenfell Tower fire took one of our families. Hashim and Nura, and their three children, Yahya, Firdaws, and Yaqub. We knew and loved them. Firdaws was twelve. Clever, creative, a beautiful singer, a voracious reader. She had dreamed of going to Disneyland. That October, we took our first group of children to Disneyland Paris in her honour. We called it the Hashim Family Legacy. In the following 9 years, 130 children experienced the magic of Disneyland thanks to this beautiful family.
We will never give up on our children. Not even Firdaws.
We now reach hundreds of children across London who have lived through more than any child should. We believe in them. I think of a boy I'll call Jamir. I knew him when he was still with his mum. Then he was placed with a foster family. In total, he was looked after by 7 different families and he did not settle down. Through it all, we stayed in his life. Today, Jamir is a volunteer at Solidarity Sports. He is going to university. He is helping to hold the next generation of children the way he was once held. We are so proud of him.
Sean's story is really the story of every child who shaped him. With your support, we can be there for the next Jamir, and the hundreds of children in West London who need someone to stay patient and kind.
Sean’s story is not only about where Solidarity Sports began. It is about where it can go next. With your support, we can continue creating safe spaces, joyful experiences, and brighter futures for children who need them most.
Solidarity Sports, Registered Charity Number in England and Wales: 1123589
Seven Stars, 253 North End Road, London W14 9NS
©2026 Solidarity Sports. All rights reserved.
