Just two years after they launched Kit4Kenya Tom Sweetnam and Archie Barrow are working with giants Arsenal Football Club and Manchester United Football Club among others.
They also partner with Goods For Good, Life Reform Africa, AS Roma Football Club and Oxford United Football Club, to provide much-needed football kit to underprivileged communities.
Established in the summer of 2017, Tom and Archie Co-founded the charity to embrace their passion for sport, in particular, football, and the need to recycle sports kit to those less fortunate in Africa.
Both founders were involved in EdClub and when Tom and Archie contacted the organisation, they found that there was a huge need for kit, football boots in particular, and that EdClub could help organise the transportation to ensure safe arrival.
Kit4Kenya was born!
Working with Arsenal Football Club
Thanks to Arsenal's generosity Kit4Kenya were able to gain access to the season’s excess stock. They sent 3,000 items to their affiliated community as well as providing kits for the Kenyan football teams located in the slums in Nairobi. The kids and teams were delighted to receive such high-quality football equipment.
Working with AS Roma Football Club
Tom and Archie were lucky enough to be put in contact with AS Roma FC, who, through their charity, Roma Cares, provided them with excess stock and Nike football kit, some even worn by the players! They successfully delivered just under £10,000 worth of AS Roma kit last year to the local community in Kenya, who were over the moon to receive what was for many of them the first football top they could call their own.
Goods for Good
The Charity Goods for Good send goods donated by generous businesses and individuals in the UK to vulnerable communities living around the world. To date, they have successfully exported £14 million worth of goods from the UK to over 15 different countries benefiting from their work. As student ambassadors for this well-known charity, Archie and Tom have been allowed to work with their network of trusted charity partners, enabling them to collaborate and to supply kit to places far away.
Working with Life Reform Africa
Life Reform Africa are a charity-based organisation committed to empowering underprivileged communities. Their beneficiaries include destitute, low-income and displaced people in Kenya, Zambia and other parts of Africa. In Kit4Kenya’s most recent shipment they decided to allocate a significant proportion of their kit to Life Reform Africa who host an annual football tournament around Christmas time. After two months in transit, the kit arrived just in time for the final stages of the competition.
(Pictures Below)Plans for the Future
To date, Kit4Kenya have successfully delivered just under 500 pairs of sports shoes and £160,000 worth of brand-new football kit to slum communities and football teams in Kenya. While they are very proud of these figures, they see this as just the beginning of what will hopefully develop into a charity that can provide football kit to every slum community in Kenya.
If you would like to read more about the charity, visit their website here
Kit4KenyaDonations
Tom and Archie would be extremely grateful for any donations, however small they may be and their Just Giving page can be found
here.“You cannot believe what a difference a small donation or even a pair of your second-hand trainers can mean to these children who literally have nothing to call their own.”Follow their story on Instagram
here.
