Getting Cassel to the World Championships

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Edit:
My paypal.me:

Pay I Chiang Lin using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/tonystabletennis and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

www.paypal.com

Target to raise: USD4000. Revised to USD2000

Original post here:


This morning, I had an adrenaline rush.
I went through some photos of Cassel table tennis club that I had, and I thought, why I didn't do a get "Cassel to the World Championships" campaign few months ago. So I posted it on Facebook.

I asked the man running Cassel, Willice, if we should try (there is only 3 weeks to go), and he said:

"....I got all emotional I couldn't respond then as I was just trying to absorb it all. You made me shed a tear"
"Let me say thanks for the recognition... and yes please if it's possible let's make it happen. It would mean a lot to the kids who would never ever afford attending a World Championships even if it's right at their door step".

When reading his reply, I was both excited and also shed some tears.

Cassel Table Tennis club is located in the rural village of Cassel, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
It is so rural, that I can't even post things or send couriers to Cassel.

I have not met Willice in person, but have spoken to him on the phone and messages for near a decade. Only last month, I found out, he isn't even South African (he is Zimbabwean) and he is an angel for rural kids in South Africa. He isn't just a coach, he is a mentor, a father and he even developed a player to represent South Africa to go the the world schools games in China, but was canceled sadly, due to Covid outbreaks in China.

How I found out he was Zimbabwean? he said he wanted to purchase some balls and donate them back to Zimbabwe.
I was really surprised as he wasn't looking for his own kids he is looking after in Cassel, but beyond. So this just tell me, how good of a human he is.
He doesn't just do table tennis, he also help start a soccer (football) club in Cassel.
He has the right mindset of telling those kids, it doesn't matter where you are from, but if you work hard and aim for your dreams, anything is possible.

I hope the photos will do the talking. We are busy finding and finalizing the costs and setting up a gofundme and I'm humbling asking for everyone to chip in.

Thank you, enjoy the photos.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Here is the news article about the trip to China

Cassel TTC managed to get funding from the national lottery few years back.
They had some budget for equipment. I made sure that for every penny he spent, he got way more than the value of goods from my table tennis shop (that was one of the reason why I started a shop in South Africa, so I can be in control of making sure good people who buy equipment for others, can pay the lowest price possible)

I told Willice, now your kids, won't just look good (in the new kits they got to wear), but will be using some real (professional) equipment.
Just typing this now, I can recall that conversation on the phone after I sent him this photo and before sending it out with courier.
I could hear his tears....

Willice sent me this photo not so long ago.
I guess, its the first time I saw balls becoming "brownish".

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Hi All.
Herewith the costs (in ZAR, and I will convert to USD at the end)

Tickets costs: R18200 (Cheapest tickets - Category 3 for Saturday and Sunday 27 and 28 May 2023)
Accommodation (2 nights for 14 people): R20000
Transportation: R18000
Meals (3 days - including meals for the travel days): R12000

Total needed: R68200
ZAR to USD Rate of Exchange today is 18:41.
so R68200 equals USD3700

We would like to aim to get USD4000, to help cover fees.

There is no gofundme support for South Africa.
There is a South African version called backabuddy, but that won't be live until next week. There is a 7% fee + 15% VAT (so its 8.05% as fees). And the problem with backabuddy is that payment received this month will only be paid out next month by the 10th

This can work for credit card payments, but for cash payments, it is not ideal. So someone advised I should consider paypal for international payments (lower fees, and 2 to 3 days for it to get into a South African bank account).

So, we are looking to raise 3 ways

1. Paypal - for the ones who trust that I am legitimate - please pay into Paypal, as that would be an instance cash for me to transfer to Willice to cover his costs.
2. Backabuddy (when it is live), is what we will send out to South African's who doesn't know me and would like a donations platform to act as a vetting platform. We will just need to figure out how to break up the Cash/Credit Card expensive, so the delayed payment here is a headache at the moment.
3. South African bank accounts - same as Paypal, for the ones that trust me, could pay directly into my SA bank account

I will create a list of donors, if you wish to remain anonymous, please tell me. I will also group them, ie Table Tennis Daily members.
I will share the list of donors here.

Please kindly chip in if you can.
I am still arrange extras (one of my suppliers to provide shirts, getting autograph sessions with pros etc).
I'm actually not going to the World Champs any more (due to personal reasons), so I'm hoping to help 14 people from really tough and rural backgrounds to experience the world championships.

My paypal.me:

Pay I Chiang Lin using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/tonystabletennis and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

www.paypal.com

Thank you in advance

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Thank you, first donation coming in from USA

Few people have step up to arrange free tickets. so that is going to be another $1000 in value saved.
Fingers crossed for the good news there

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Seems like it is pretty certain the tickets costs is now out of the picture, the balance needed is around USD2800, we already on USD400, and that is inside the first few hours. (Thank you to friends from USA, Canada and South Africa).

Willice told me, they just need 2 rooms (and not 4 as per the quotes I got).
One for the boys and one for the girls, he said the kids can all squeeze in on the bed and he can sleep on the floor.... He is also phoning hostels to see if they can crash in for free or at a lower costs.
The intial quote was for rooms for 4, for 4, for 3 and for 3.... I'm not sure many boys and girls there are..

He said he can also drive there with his mini truck, have half the kids in the car and half at the back.
I said no.... its a 14 hour journey (1 driver only), not 14 mins. Rather charter a 18 seater.

Willice also said we can reduce costs on meals. I was budgeting USD3.8 per person per meal. He is trying to get organizations in Durban to cater for the 14 of them, and likely can reduce the meals part by quite a bit. I don't live on a dollar a day, but these guys do.

Willice doesn't want to only take some of the kids (should we don't hit the target)... so he is finding ways to reduce the costs where possible. I'm not sure what the new budget could be, maybe less than USD2000, so we could be around 20% there already.

Every $5 or $10 helps greatly, so even if it is small, please do chip in.
Even if you can't chip in financially, please do send your blessings to me on PM (or post below), I like to share to Willice and his kids on how many people in the world knows about them and cares.

Thank you

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

do you have a Revolut account ?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

do you have a Revolut account ?

not yet, i'm looking into it right away.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

So some news update

1) we closing on to USD800, so close to "half way there"

2) karen reported me as SPAM (table tennis forum, with table tennis related fund rasing as spam... clearly he is on the wrong forum), what a sad individual. I have collected a list of blessing message from many of you, and will send on. karen message to me as "Report as Spam" will go onto the message too. This is to show many people actually care (and from many countries too) and ONE doesn't.

3) Dan wants to send some shirts, but it likely won't get in time (I was able to get get a UK player or coach to bring over, but they leaving in a couple of days . If only I started this campaign earlier.... Well, all is still good, the key is getting the kids there, and I'm sure we can do a follow up photo with Cassel wearing TTD shirts, and a thank you message to TTD, less the Karen.

4) The SA "gofundme" page, called Backabuddy's link is live:
https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/willice-v-5592637280736408500
So if any one of you not using paypal, and wish to contribute, you are able to use credit card payment through Backabuddy.
Only disadvantage with Backabuddy is the fees , but given it being the fastest of the 3 platforms available to go live, we had no choice (the other 2 isn't much cheaper either).

For your info on the Fees:
It’s free to launch a campaign on BackaBuddy. When you raise funds, BackaBuddy receives a 7%+VAT administration fee from all funds raised.
Each payment channel has a usage fee which is deducted on payment: EFT has a R12 flat rate, credit cards 3.9%, PayPal $0.3 + 5.5% of the donation received, and I-Pay 3.5%.

Therefore, admin fee of 7%+15%(VAT) + credit card fee of 3.9% = 11.95% (unless my English reading and maths is wrong)

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Update 10 May

1) Sitting on USD950

2) Expense/Goal decreased to USD2000
Managed to come down a big chunk on transport and a bit on accommodation
I think it will be very difficult to go down further. USD2000 equates to $140 per person for 28 hours of transportation, 2 nights of stay and 9 meals.
They won't be traveling the best, staying in the best and basically buying groceries to self cater to reduce costs on meals (not a single meal will be purchased from a restaurant/fast food). I have approach the TT community of Durban to help provide some home cook meals to ease the load on Cassel. So hope that comes through too.

The kids will need to take leave from school on the 26th
Leave early hours on the Friday and arrive in Durban late in the evening.
They will watch the world champs on the 27th and 28th. Last finals on the 28th could finish around 4pm. So they should be on the road again straight away and would likely arrive back home in time for "school" the next morning (Monday).

3) A couple of members said they will contribute soon, and so have a couple of people from South Africa and Taiwan.

If all goes to plan, we can start paying towards the deposits of the accommodation and transportation by this
weekend.

Already a couple of top pros have agreed to have autograph and photo sessions with Cassel.

I have probably spent over 20 man hours on this already since Friday.
New respect to those organisers of fund raisers events.
No easy task

This time, other than the free tickets (which is via the national federation), there has been no "gov" related support. Making a point that the private community could make things happen (not everything is the responsibility of government and blaiming them on no progress), and that is one of the founding goals of my company, Tony's Table Tennis, in 2012. A small side hustle business, many more people benefit from this, than my own pockets.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Update 11 May

1) Sitting on USD1600 (80% of target)

2) Quite a few contributions came from Taiwanese national players over the past few hours. Never expected young players, who are still playing and need all the funds they can get for themselves, contributing too.

3) This has become an international campaign, with the donors from USA, Canada, India, Nigeria, Taiwan, UK and South Africa assisting to date.

4) Some TT members on TTD mentioned they will be chipping in too, and some more national players/coaches from Taiwan too. Trip is almost certain now.

Any excess contributions, we will put towards table tennis resources for the club.

and maybe upping the meal budget a little bit for the 3 days, so they can eat a bit more healthy (ie getting them fruits and protein) and not just (I think) breads for all 3 meals.
Meal budget was reduced by Willice to USD220 for 14 people for 9 meals (USD1.75 per meal per person)