We received a request for information from a girl in Canberra who was interested in setting up a similar project to KitAid. After some discussion amongst the Trustees I emailed back to understand exactly how closely they wanted to mirror our operating model, and we have subsequently shared some emails where I have offered advice and some of the lessons we have learned. We will follow up with a Memorandum of Understanding soon, but they have now taken their first steps as they have set up a Facebook page and designed a logo.

They have used our name, although they have created it as two separate words, and we have accepted this as I feel it does add some credibility to what we have achieved over the last 17 years. I do really hope that they make a success of Kit Aid Australia (KAA) and I look forward to meeting up with them one day at a jointly supported project somewhere in Africa.

To whet your appetite we attach a photo of one of the fantastic framed photos we received of George Best, Peter Osgood, Geoff Hurst, Trevor Brooking and Billy Bremner.

We have decided to hold an auction via our web site link which is currently being set up with the help of Switch and Laura Davis.

Hopefully this will be done soon and we will let you know so that you can help us to publicise it to as many people as possible.

Derrick has lucky enough to do a couple of radio interviews recently, so all of Beds, Bucks and Herts are now aware of us.  Well…those who listen in to Sunday night and lunch time local radio!  

The Sunday night DJ (Nesta MacGregor) was great and he was really enthusiastic as he supported Arsenal and grew up in Jamaica.  He is a Radio 1 Extra DJ and he recommended us to appear on the lunch time show as he wanted us to get more publicity. 

It all helps to spread the KitAid message and you never know who might be listening in.  Fingers crossed something good will come from it.

On a truly positive note, we had a call from a Registrar based at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool as he wanted to take out some kit to a hospital he volunteers at in Malawi.

Local KitAid contacts Janet and Vin passed on a number of Liverpool and Everton shirts and we recently received some lovely photos of kids wearing them soon after their operations.  We've posted a few on twitter and they are really moving. As we say, it really is “More than just a shirt”

Happy Easter to you all and as we always say, thank you for your support which is what makes KitAid the fantastic charity it is. 

You may recall we have entered into an unofficial partnership with Adventure Kicks, who run trips to Africa (and Mongolia). They are planning a trip to Namibia for February 2016 and would like to make it a KitAid supporters trip for a group of 15+ of our people.

If anyone is interested could you please email Martin Myers at martin@adventurekicks.com and he will be able to give you the very latest news.

For those of you who don’t fancy such a long journey we will soon be taking names for the annual Ballysillan Belfast visit for next July (23,24,25th).

I know we have already had some interest so let me know if you are interested as we will need to make arrangements in March.