I'm Ghana Join Up & Belt Up!

Teenager from AFRICA wants to join Paisley karate club

Scotland -- A PAISLEY karate club has a new member - a teenage boy who lives in AFRICA and claims he’s being bullied.

Colin Steel, who runs the Lenbukan Shotokan club in the town, was stunned when a letter arrived at his home from 14-year-old Yaw Baah Dankyi Junior who lives in Ghana.

The teenager said he wanted to learn karate so he could protect himself from his big brothers and a friend who he says beat him up.

He pleaded with 42-year-old Colin to send him a book so he could learn the martial art.

Colin, who has been studying karate for 30 years and is a black belt 3rd Dan, said: “I couldn’t believe when the letter came to my house. I have never heard of anything like this at all.”

He thinks the youngster must have got the details of his club off the internet.

Colin, of Argyle Street, Paisley, said: “There’s a martial arts website where you can advertise clubs and I put the name of the club and my home address on it years ago - in fact it was so long ago that I can’t even remember what the website was.

“But that’s the only way I can think he could have got in touch with us.

“I was really stunned when I got the letter but it was also a nice feeling that this boy was writing to us looking for help and was interested in learning karate.”

In his letter the teenager wrote: “I want to learn karate because my brothers have been beating me so much that I cannot protect myself from them.

“I want to be a hero and want to join the Lenbukan Karate Club.

Protect

“Please help me because I want to protect myself from my big brothers who are older than me and my bad friend who is always harassing me and beating me up.

“I want to learn karate and martial arts so that I can protect myself from them.”

Colin said: “I’ll certainly send him out a book and some magazines and I’m getting the kids in the club to write letters to this boy. I’m also planning to make a video of one of our training sessions for him and I will see if I can find a karate club in his area that he could go along to.

“As well as that, Have a Heart Paisley, who help fund the club, are also putting together a goody bag for him.

“But I’d really like to stay in touch with him and find out how he gets on with it. I also think it would be really interesting for the kids to see what life is like in a different part of the world.”