A STOURBRIDGE church minister has launched an impassioned plea to football fans to help raise £20,000 to build tsunami-surviving kids in Phuket a new football pitch.

Children in the beachside resort of Kamala have been back at their desks for almost 12 months thanks to our successful News Group tsunami appeal which helped rake in more than £87,000 towards rebuilding their shattered school after the devastating December 2004 tsunami.

And in May this year it will be officially opened by the Princess of Thailand.

Built bigger, stronger and further back from the sea - the only thing it is now lacking is a sports pitch.

So ex-Amblecote Christian Centre vicar Rev Peter Jenkins, who is now missions director at Renewal Christian Centre in Solihul, is spearheading a campaign to help raise the money and get it ready in time for the Royal opening.

Pleas for help from big clubs like Wolverhampton Wanderers have so far drawn a blank, so Peter who lives in Pedmore is now appealing to football fans to donate just £1 each to the cause.

He said: "We've been desperately trying to get a football club to help us finish this project, but failing that if 20,000 supporters gave us a £1 we'd hit our target in no time.

"The cost of putting in a grass pitch would be much cheaper, but we feel in the long term astro turf would be the best because of the climate. But it would cost around £20,000 and that was not in our budget for building this school.

"Nobody is thinking about the tsunami victims anymore, there's been 20 more disasters since and I appreciate that - but we have still got to keep maintaining and running what we have set up."

Anyone able to help can make cheques payable to RCC and send them to our address on p4.