Alive & Kicking UK

Kenya

In addition to the well known humanitarian agencies like Red Cross, World Vision, Care, Amref, Family Health International, Plan, Oxfam, Path and Goal that are well established in Kenya (and who all use our balls), there are literally hundreds of community based organisations, staffed almost entirely by volunteers, who are working with youth. Judging by the number of requests we get from them for "free" balls, more and more people are getting to hear about Alive & Kicking!

In order to ensure that donated balls really do end up where intended, it soon became necessary to develop and apply eligibility criteria. So most of the Youth Groups that we currently support are run by individuals whose programmes are well known to us and where possible we have actually visited.

Two of our HIV/AIDS awareness "Ambassadors" and top Kenyan sporting personalities are the footballer Musa Otieno (currently playing professionally for Santos in South Africa), and the visually impaired world champion runner Henry Wanyoike. Both have selflessly set up their own Foundations to stimulate and encourage young people in their neighbourhoods, so we naturally provide balls to support their work.

We are also supporting a Capital Area Soccer League (CASL) programme in Kenya run by Eunice Ndeche which is based in Eastleigh one of the densely populated poorer Nairobi suburbs. Eunice, who is working with 200 young footballers in three age groups, has put some of them through an HIV/AIDS awareness course designed by Grassroots Soccer during his coaching sessions.

If you want to hear more about Henry Wanyoike visit http://seeingisbelieving.org.uk; www.sightsavers.org.uk or www.henry4gold.com . For more on Musa Otieno visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/default.stm . To learn about CASL's awareness work in Kenya, visit http://www.streetfootballworld.org/index_html/en

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