By Simon Hilditch | Programme Officer
It has been an exciting start to 2012 at Alive & Kicking, as the stitching centres in Lusaka and Nairobi continue to produce thousands of quality sports balls and we move towards opening a new centre in Accra, Ghana. Between them, A&K Kenya and A&K Zambia provide sustainable employment for 150 people, a number we hope to add to in Ghana over the coming months.
As far as our stitchers in Lusaka are concerned, easily the most exciting news this year was Zambia winning the Africa Cup of Nations in February. In a nerve-racking finale, they edged out the overwhelming favourites Ivory Coast on penalties in Libreville. Having distributed thousands of footballs to children in Zambia since 2004, Alive & Kicking felt an immense sense of pride seeing the young Chipolopolo players lifting the cup.
Shortly after their continental cup success, Zambia hosted some special visitors in the form of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, IOC President Jacques Rogge and UN Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace Wilfred Lemke. They were in Lusaka to mark the new Olympic Youth Development Centre, and took the opportunity to meet Christopher Mutale, a stitcher at Alive & Kicking Zambia. Christopher demonstrated the art of hand-stitching footballs and showed off one he made earlier to a very impressed Secretary General. More here.
PR firm clarity announced that it has chosen Alive & Kicking as its charity of the year, and promptly set up a campaign in which they will donate £1 for every 'like' that they receive on their Facebook page. We are delighted to be receiving this support and believe our organisations can achieve a lot together going forward.
We would like to thank everyone who has donated to Alive & Kicking recently and look forward to giving our next update in 3 months time.
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