Making footballs that can save lives in Africa

Summary

100 stitchers are making tough, repairable leather soccer balls & volleyballs in Africa for kids who hardly get to see a proper ball. Each ball carries a simple HIV/AIDS or Malaria awareness message.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

The opportunity to play sport in Africa is inhibited by a chronic shortage of balls. There is no large scale ball production on the continent, and imported balls are expensive and largely inappropriate for the tough playing conditions. Alive & Kicking is addressing this problem by making balls in Kenya & Zambia from local leather and selling them at cost. Over 140,000 balls have been made to date, each carrying simple awareness messages on HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

How will this project solve this problem?

We make affordable balls so that youngsters from poorer communities are able to play more sport. We also create awareness of preventable illnesses by printing messages on each ball and distributing our awareness posters featuring sports personalities

Potential Long Term Impact

We plan to avail 100,000 balls yearly to encourage young people to participate in sport and enhance their life skills. These same people are most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, so we plan to distribute our awareness posters to all 24,000 Kenyan schools.

Project Message

We very much appreciate the contribution that Alive & Kicking is making to reversing the spread of HIV in Kenya through sports, and your efforts to avail good quality leather balls to our schools.
- Enos O. Oyaya, OGW, Director of Education

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).

Resources