Making footballs that can save lives in Africa

Michael Acton and Christine Illanes are students who traveled throughout Africa and visited a number of GlobalGiving projects. On March 19th they visited "Making footballs that can save lives in Africa ." When asked what they would tell their friends about this project, Mike said: “Great: They are making a difference," while Christine said "Incredible: You need to see this!"

Michael writes:

We visited the factory where Alive & Kicking Kenya makes most of its footballs/soccer balls. Joel picked us up early from our hotel and drove us out towards the airports where they employ about 40 people to make footballs with personalized messages. Most of these messages tell people ways to stay healthy (e.g. avoid HIV/AIDS & Malaria). The footballs are designed and produced wholly in-house.

While the organization creates and sells footballs, it is a non-profit organization and donates a large number of balls during their workshops. The office was covered in posters of Kenyan football stars dispelling myths about HIV/AIDS and explaining how to stay healthy.

The floor manager showed us how the footballs were made from start to finish. Due to the compressed nature of our visit, the only beneficiaries we visited were those who were making the soccer balls.

After visiting the factory floor, we spoke with Joel and the floor manager about Alive & Kicking Kenya. Unfortunately, the global economic situation has affected the number of orders given to Alive & Kicking. They have had to make some cutbacks in the production process. They work with their partner organization in the UK for strategic planning. Nevertheless they work hard at providing quality footballs that will promote healthy living to African children.

Christine writes:

Joel Kinuthia met me at my hotel and drove me out to see the factory where Alive and Kicking Kenya soccer balls are made. Joel told me that prior to Alive and Kicking, no one made soccer balls in Africa and that the synthetic ones that were imported were meant for grass, not the more common dirt fields in Africa. Therefore, Alive and Kicking makes soccer balls using natural materials that are hand stitched by employees.

The employees at Alive and Kicking are some of the people that the organization is helping by providing them with training and income. The other major beneficiaries are the children, since the main goal of Alive and Kicking is to get as many soccer balls to kids as possible by providing them at cost to other NGOs.

The month of June was full of activity for us here at Alive and Kicking Kenya. Apart from distributing over 150 balls to children’s homes and organizations such as Heshima Kenya, and Carolina for Kibera, we have availed balls to various charitable sports initiatives around the country, including the Kenya Homeless World Cup, and the Support Activities in Poverty Eradication & Health (SAIPEH)/Sporting Chance International football tournament in Mumias, Western Kenya.

We also had the pleasure of hosting Leah Ambwaya; the local GlobalGiving evaluator last month. Transparency is important to Alive and Kicking Kenya. As such, Leah’s visit was very much welcome for it will not only give you, our donors open feedback on our activities, but it will also provide us the opportunity to learn and improve as we strive to achieve our goals. …..

World Cup 2010 – Celebration or Sham?

As exciting as the month of June was, July promises to be even more exciting as we embark on a ‘Penalty Kick Challenge’. In exactly one year, the FIFA World Cup will be hosted in Africa for the first time but sadly this global extravaganza may come and go without positively influencing the lives of young Africans who have been affected and are increasingly vulnerable to infectious diseases. It is in recognition of the latter and the fact that thousands of young children in the slum and rural areas of Kenya continue to use balls made out of plastic bags and string, that Alive and Kicking Kenya aims to promote health as well as land more balls in the hands of children who have never played with a real ball before, let alone owned one during our ‘Penalty Kick Challenge’ starting this month.

Through mini-football clinics to be held around the country, we aim to deliver sport-based health education as well as enable young aspiring footballers in the country, like millions around the world to have fun playing with balls that last. During the clinics, children will receive free football tips administered via unique coaching drills designed to inform them about HIV/AIDS. What’s more, children who sign up for the clinics will get the opportunity to take a penalty kick (at reasonable range of course) for a chance to win and own their very own football. Basically, if they can aim it, kick it and score it, they get to keep it!

Your support this month will therefore go a long way in changing the lives of Kenyan children through football as we count down to the World Cup. Not only will it enable more children around Kenya to have quality, informative footballs to call their own, but it will also provide them the opportunity to exercise their fundamental right to play as well as raise their HIV/AIDS awareness. No donation is too small to help us make the 2010 World Cup more meaningful to the lives of Africa’s poor.