News Update – April 2026

Welcome to the April monthly update and we hope you are enjoying the new format.

April was another busy month with a boxing up session at Hatfield and almost daily kit handovers at the container site in Hemel Hempstead.

The latest monthly figures below highlight this.

Total items of kit donated in April  –             13,041

Total items of kit donated so far in 2026  –  45,102

Total items of kit donated since 1998  –       1,277,129

Boxing Up

Sat 26th April 2026

We had another great boxing up session! 145 boxes packed, 5,075 items sent to Uganda, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, The Philippines & local refugee support.

We even celebrated sending 1.25M items with some cake. A huge thanks to all who came. Video highlights from the day can be seen here:

Trustee Position

Janet Neville

Jnaet Neville -After 20 years involvement with KitAid as both a Regional Co-ordinator and Trustee Janet decided to step down from her roles. We thanked her for her tremendous support and subsequently presented her with a special glass shield to recognise her service. Janet will continue to support Richie in his role as RC for Merseyside as and when she is able to.

Thomas Enright – Thomas stood for re-election until  April 2029 but indicated that this will be his final term as a Trustee.

Mark Smith – Mark stood for re-election as a Trustee and Treasurer but also indicated that this would be his final term as a Trustee.

Ben Wildman – Ben was voted in as a new Trustee and welcomed to the team for a three-year term.

Derrick Williams MBE – Derrick indicated that this will be his final term as a Trustee and he will stand down from KitAid in July 2028 as we reach our 30th anniversary.

It was agreed that Derrick will document his activities and a special meeting will be held in September to review options for continuing the current KitAid operating model.  This also means we will require new Trustees and a new Treasurer.  If you have any thoughts or questions please contact Derrick before the September meeting.

BBC Radio Cornwall

Congratulations to Kevin our Regional Coordinator for the Bournemouth area.  He was happily painting his beach hut while listening to BBC Radio Cornwall, where he originally hails from, when an article about football shirts appeared. He downed tools, sent through a message, and before the paint had dried, he was invited on air to talk about KitAid!!  Well done, Kevin, and thanks for being so quick off the mark.  It was a really good interview and our name gets more airwave coverage as a result. Hope you managed to finish the painting!

Watford FC Junior Hornet Boot Collection

At a recent Watford home game the Junior Hornets were asked to bring outgrown boots to the game. We collected a bin full of boots that former Nigeria captain, William Troost Ekong, will soon collect. William has a Foundation in Nigeria which we have previously donated kit to.

A very big thank you to Watford FC, the Watford FC Community Sports and Education Trust, Kristian Hitchins and to all of the Junior Hornets who donated boots. You can watch a short video here:

Essex FA Event

Barrie, our RC for Essex has developed a strong relationship with Essex FA and has been invited to attend a Club Conference event on Saturday 30 May.  This type of event is a great way to meet clubs from across the county, especially at this time of the year when most are looking to renew kits for next season.  If you would like to join Barrie in Chelmer Village please get in touch.

Street Child World Cup – Mexico

We have a close partnership with FAFALI in Ghana and over the years we have donated thousands of items of kit for their football projects.  One project we are very close to is the Saturday Morning Girls’ football coaching where all of the girls wear Harpenden Colts shirts.  Incredibly they have been invited to take part in the Street Child World Cup competition in Mexico and they are the only team from Africa.

As you can imagine the cost of flights from Ghana to Mexico for 11 girls and coaches is astronomical, around £16,000. KitAid has donated £500 towards the costs and they are due to leave this weekend.

We will post updates and wish the girls the very best of luck. It really is incredible to see these girls from very disadvantaged backgrounds being so well supported by FAFALI.

World Cup Support

We are in discussion with a big venue in London Bridge that wants to host a shirt collection while they are showing England’s World Cup games. Each game has already sold out and the capacity for each night is 700 tickets.  

The campaign is in conjunction with a well known whisky brand and their legal team is currently reviewing things before giving the go-ahead.  

I should hear soon and if the green light is given it would be great to have some KitAid volunteers there on the night of each game.  If you are interested, please let me know.

Positive Ending

As you know, I like to end these monthly updates with positive feedback. I hope you enjoy the following from the Nkuriza Foundation in Rwanda.

“Through your commitment to supporting youth development we have successfully grown our flagship program, the U13 youth league. We are proud to inform you that this league is now active across all districts of Rwanda. This milestone would not have been possible without KitAid’s invaluable contribution.”

Thank you to everyone reading this for your support and wishing everyone a good month of May.

Derrick