Alive and Kicking in Nairobi...

Before we set off on this project, Alive and Kicking (www.aliveandkicking.org.uk) kindly donated over 100 footballs for us to distribute to the different projects we would visit on our way. So far we have donated over 75 balls to a variety of worthwhile causes but our stock was running low. We’d been given a contact for Alive and Kicking in Nairobi who we called when we arrived here. Joel Kinuthia is the country manager for the charity here in Kenya and he agreed to pick us up from our campsite and drive us to the factory on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Alive & Kicking makes high quality durable footballs, netballs and volleyballs in Africa using African skills and leather.  They employ over 150 Stitchers across three countries (the others are Zambia and South Africa) and have produced over 180,000 balls for children across Africa.  Each ball carries a message on AIDS, malaria or TB. They are using a sports based approach to increase awareness and help alleviate the effects of these devastating diseases.

We interviewed Joel about the history of the organisation, how he got involved, what plans they have for the future and the problems they face. He spoke passionately about how the footballs have been used around Africa and beyond (80% of their profits are currently raised from exporting) but his main hope is that the footballs reach more and more African communities in the future. The main problem they face is that it costs nearly £10 to make a ball to cover all the materials used, staffing costs and overheads but this is still a lot cheaper than balls made by some of the big corporate giants. He spoke with a heavy heart about having to relieve nearly 70 staff from the payroll due to current economic climate. They are also still awaiting VAT exemption which is taking far too long to process.

We were also introduced to Roy Wekoto (Finance and Admin Manager) and Charles Mwaniki (Production Manager) who showed us around the factory and walked us through the process of making the footballs. They are currently hand stitching over 80,000 footballs for UEFA as part of the RESPECT campaign which is helping to keep them afloat for the time being. They are also hoping that a further order of over 100,000 will materialise in the build up to World Cup but nothing concrete has come of this as yet.

 

To walk round the factory was a great privilege as we got to see at first hand how these amazing footballs, which we have been handing out, are made. We also got to understand how the making of these footballs were not only creating livelihoods but how they were also helping to spread the awareness of many of these preventable but deadly diseases. Joel handed us a further 85 balls to pass on to more projects on our way (including a bag of balls funded by the Vice President of UEFA!) and posters with messages about HIV endorsed by some of Kenya’s most famous sports stars. We already know that these footballs and posters will be put to good use as we have lined up a variety of projects to visit very soon.

 

Up next is a visit to MYSA (Mathare Youth Sports Association – www.mysakenya.org). MYSA is a self-help youth programme linking sports with environmental cleanups, AIDS prevention, leadership training and other community service activities involving approximately twenty thousand young people. Then we head to visit a Tackle Africa (www.tackleafrica.org) project on the outskirts of Nairobi where we film Tackle Africa’s coaching manual being used with young people by the coaches based there. On Saturday we head in to Pumwani, which is one of the worst slums in East Africa, to film the work being done there to help some of the poorest people in Africa. We then head to Kisumu to film more Tackle Africa projects and then head to Kendu Bay where we be meeting up with the Mango Tree (www.themangotree.org) and find out all about the work this charity is doing to help over 10,000 orphans.  We will obviously be playing football as often as we can in this time and then we head to Tanzania to visit some more amazing projects. We will update you on the journey as soon as we can.

Take care everyone

Andy

P.S If you are a member of a sports club or a football/netball/volleyball team then please try and get them involved in buying some of the Alive and Kicking balls. We’ve been using them across Africa so far and I can honestly say that they are great to play with (as good as the best footballs I have used). Bags can be bought with 25 or 35 in them and would be cheaper alternative to the balls used at most sports clubs in England. They are made out of leather for the purposes of African terrain but synthetic ones can be made for the same price, which are more suitable to the conditions in Britain. Plus the money goes towards a genuinely worthwhile cause and will change a lot of lives. For more information and to investigate further please visit the Alive and Kicking website or contact me on [email protected]