Afrikit team up with Armadillo Storage
Afrikit would like to formally announce our operations and marketing partnership with Armadillo Storage Sheffield. Storage is a key function of the Afrikit operation and for Armadillo to kindly donate free storage to Afrikit allows us to invest kindly donated money into other remits of the charity. As a result we are now able to accept a greater volume of donations than we could previously in addition to funding the distribution of more donated football kit and equipment to the communities and causes that we work with in Africa. Furthermore, Armadillo Storage Sheffield have kindly agreed to be a donation point for Afrikit, accepting donations as of November 2011.
Afrikit Partner with KYSA: Helping Kenya through Football
Afrikit is delighted to announce our partnership with the Kabras Youth Soccer Association (KYSA) based in Western Kenya. Joseph Shitanda, the founder of KYSA tells us all about it: “My brainchild, the KYSA is dedicated to fighting youth delinquency, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS. By engaging the local community through a programme of sport and competitive football tournaments we aim to encourage the children to take the correct pathway encouraging team ethic and togetherness”.
From Liverpool With Love!
The Afrikit Team would like to extend a special "Thank You!" to the staff and pupils of Rice Lane Junior School in Liverpool for their outstanding generosity and inspiring efforts to donate their old football kits to the Afrikit project. Staff at the school have done a great job of instilling the values of global humanity and awareness into the children, and they have previously sent equipment to a school in Sierra Leone that has been rebuilt since the war. The children love football and were delighted to pass on their shirts to a good cause:
"Mine didn't fit me any more so why should the other children not be able to play in them"
"We have reused and recycled all in one"
"It makes me feel good to help the children in Africa"
Kits 4 Causes: Making a Difference at a Football Club Near You
Opening the back pages of any national newspaper today, you are likely to find a story that condemns one top-flight footballer for their behaviour either on or off the pitch. For all the negative attention that football players receive, it was uplifting to find an email from a football player called Chris Giles in the Afrikit inbox. Chris, who plays for Salisbury City FC, has a simple desire to help others through the game in which he loves. After seeing a consistent wastage of old football kits and equipment at several of the football clubs he has previously played for, Chris contacted Afrikit to see if we could help. This was to be the start of Kits 4 Causes, a subsidiary project of Afrikit in partnership with Chris Giles.
Kenya 2011: My Story
"I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to Kenya on a Geography Field Trip in March in which I took around 100 kits out to the remote village of Marich in West Pokot near the Uganda border. Through my project work, I became well aware of some of the issues present within the community as well as the general love for football that was played without fail every break time, either with a ball of elastic bands or a tennis ball!
We first distributed kits from Chelmsford Ladies Football Club to a local football team organised by local Policeman John. He told me that he managed a local team and had some very talented players, who just simply need an opportunity. He also mentioned how inferior equipment hampers their footballing development so needless to say he was extremely grateful for the donation of kits. He wanted to arrange a football match between us lot (the geography students) and their team. This was to be the highlight of our week…nicely breaking up our fieldwork studies.