Many thanks to Janet for collecting all of the kit donated by fans at the recent kit amnesty.
This campaign generated a lot of interest, including a mention on the main BBC Sport web site, and some great comments on twitter.
All of the shirts will be sorted and donated at the next boxing up session in Manchester, thus saving an unnecessary trip to Hatfield and a courier fee, as well as helping to improve our carbon footprint.
Ben recently sent this email which although sad, highlights once again the power of giving something as simple as a football scarf or shirt to those who have very little
Finally, I have a picture of some of the aid you have given being distributed. Some of the football scarves you donated were distributed along with more of our winter aid on Friday in the Dohuk area in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In Iraq there are currently more than 8 million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, and we are also sending to Syria as well now.
This is a family of 13 people (mother, father, grandmother and ten children), but it wasn’t that size last year. They all fled from Sinjar when IS came and started shooting people. Thousands fled to the Sinjar mountains and in the chaos four of these children lost their father. They don’t know what happened to him but assume that he was killed along with many others. Once in the mountains, many people died of exposure and dehydration as they were trapped up there by IS waiting at the bottom. The mother died, leaving four children aged between 4 – 15 years old with no one to care for them. The mother and father in these pictures took in these four children to care for when they didn’t even have enough to feed or care for their own children or themselves.
When hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by IS last summer, people were reduced to living in all manner of awful situations because there was nowhere to shelter. This family have moved into the only place available. An animal shed. You can see that there is no door on this building, just a tarpaulin. Winter is arriving now in the high altitude area of Dohuk and they will soon have snow. They also have a newborn baby, and this accommodation does not offer them the protection they need from the harsh winter to come. The roof is not watertight and water leaks in when it rains. They have no income as there is no work available for the displaced people as there are too many of them. They are not cared for by any of the aid organisations.
One Christian women in the area has taken them under her wing and is giving them what she can, but she too was displaced last year and is struggling to get by. Clearly her love and compassion have touched this family deeply as they have named their newborn baby after her. In any culture this is an honour, but for a Yazidi to name their child after a Christian it takes this to a new level as they are likely to face criticism from their Yazidi community as a result. We have given them winter clothes, shoes and bedding.
I have made a commitment for Samara’s Aid Appeal to provide food for this family every month as I have been moved by their seemingly hopeless situation, and the love they have shown these four children by taking them in when they don’t have enough for their own children. There are many other families in situations like this, and I will be starting to raise support so that we can help feed more of them. Please follow the link below to see a video of this family.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1bsismn041lz9hv/20151023_124834.mp4?dl=0
Over the coming weeks, more will be distributed, but I wanted you to see this as soon as possible.
Please feel free to share this with your supporters who have kindly donated the clothes you have sent to this appeal. We will be sending more this winter.
Thanks again to everyone for your support, without which, stories such as this, wouldn’t be possible.
At the October boxing up session we passed another major milestone as we reached the 300k items of kit sent out since 1998 and we currently sit on a grand total of 302,000.
I didn’t expect to reach that figure in 2015 and it really goes to show how much kit is coming to us as it was only a year ago we were celebrating the 250k milestone. We even made the local news!
It really is incredible to think that each and every single item has passed through one of our helpers hands and then found its way from Hatfield to Africa, South America, Asia or Eastern Europe at very little expense to KitAid.
Enough smiles to light up the floodlights at Wembley Stadium at least 3 times over! Well done and thank you to each and every one of you for making this happen.
Wwe received some great photos of Cardiff City kit being used by boys at the Somalia School for Dead Children. Ismail who collected the kit from us sent us a fantastic note, please find an extract below:
"We were informed that no team plays with the deaf team. Our colleague hired an AstroTurf and arranged matches with other groups.
They enjoyed Man U & Cardif City kits and proudly held their heads high.
The smiles, excitement and joy on their faces no one could describe, he says. Our colleague's time as you might imagined was laughter in one minute and tears on his eyes in the other.
They also acknowledged someone in the other side of the world cares and showed appreciation and thankfulness through their teachers and heads. He says ''this is the best thing I have ever done in my life''
I hope this inspires you and tells the story of KitAid. As we always say it really is more than just a shirt.
Each boxing up session now seems to end in a new record figure and somehow we managed to sort and box nearly 7,000 items at the September session. As a result we are now very close to 300k items of kit being donated since 1998 which is incredible. Especially when you think we were only celebrating the 250k milestone last October. We will pass the new milestone on 10 October at the next boxing up. Incredible to think we could fill Wembley Stadium three times over. A lot of smiles!
Dougy Allsop and his team have recently made an amazing trip to Mongolia where they took out kit, played in the national stadium and helped to build a number of things from funds they had raised.
This all came about from an introduction they made with Adventure Kicks when we went up to Scotland last November.
Martin Myers who runs AK attended the presentation day and it all developed from there.
Well done guys and look forward to hearing more about it when we eventually get up to Scotland again.
The kit collection was launched a couple of weeks ago and will run all through August. Last time they collected approx. 600 shirts and we've already seen a photo on twitter with donated shirts hanging off the special washing line they have created. If you are in Manchester and haven’t been to the museum do pay them a visit
Many thanks to the hardy team from Affinity Water who took part in this event and ran in KitAid branded t-shirts. There are some good photos on twitter (@kitaid) and FB sites if you haven’t already seen them.
Special thanks to Imran who thought the race was just 5k and it would be split between all 5 runners, only to find out on the night that he had to run the full distance himself! They were some of the very last runners to appear on the track before it was taken up and replaced.
We spent an interesting afternoon last Sunday at this annual event where 3,000+ fans mingled with the players.
We collected a decent amount of kit and made quite a few contacts which will result in later donations.
One positive contact which came out of the afternoon was that Watford Ladies FC are keen to work with us and I am arranging a date for us to hold a collection at one of their future games. Thanks to Sean, Niel and Nick (plus wife and daughter) for helping out on the day.
Next time I will ask not to be stationed next to the mixing desk and PA system as I am still deaf in one ear!
Yet again (after six years of visiting) Derrick came away totally inspired and in awe of the fantastic work carried out by the team at BYFC. The Footy Camp project is absolutely brilliant and the 60 kids have an awesome time. However, as we think most of you know, the project is about so much more than this, and Peter and his team, work incredibly hard to mentor all of the boys and build lasting relationships which go way beyond the 5 days of the footy camp.
This year Bean, who is a true larger than life character, ran the camp which allowed Peter to take more of a back seat role. He did a fantastic job and he also works as one of the youth workers at the BYFC drop in centre full time.
As ever, we all went back to the centre afterwards and it allowed Janet, Dom, Kevin, Steve, Lesley and Robert to see the value of the BYFC work. Peter has secured the funding for the redevelopment of the centre and work is due to start later this year. By the time we go back next year it should be looking good and it will open up a whole new world for the kids in Ballysillan to attend more activities in a much better environment.
We at KitAid are so glad we found Ballysillan YFC and as much as we try to put into words the value and brilliance of their work, we believe you have to go out and see it to really understand it. If you get the chance you really should join us next year and we're sure all of the guys who came with us will echo this.
KitAid is a charity founded by Derrick Williams MBE in 1998, to provide kit and equipment to those who do not have access to resources across Africa and the developing world.
Finding a home for your unwanted football kit in Africa and beyond.