Welcome to the TackleAfrica projects page.    Click on a country name from the list below to see all the projects in that area. Or you can scroll down this page to browse through all our individual projects.

TackleAfrica have a unique relationship with our supporters, and the vast majority of our funding comes from individuals who donate their time, energy and funds to helping us in our fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. As a small, dynamic and energetic charity with an international reach, we are always keen to build relationships with our supporters that go above and beyond the funds they raise to support our work. In the past, people who have raised funds for TackleAfrica have gone on to visit projects in Africa, qualify as TackleAfrica HIV/AIDS football coaches, give presentations on our work to other aid organisations and even become trustees!

Keep reading for some suggestions for how you can get involved in raising funds for TackleAfrica. If you have any ideas of your own, please get in touch – we will support you all the way.

Football Marathon

TackleAfrica’s annual fundraising event is the Football Marathon, which has grown is size, scope and popularity every year and in 2008 featured over 250 players raising £70,000. The ultimate test of skill and endurance, the Football Marathon features teams playing in a super-tournament for 12 hours and raising funds through sponsorship.

Contact Tom at tom@tackleafrica.org if you want to take part in the 2009 Football Marathon, or would like information on how to organise your own Football Marathon.

Organise your own event

If you want to organise your own football tournament, keepy-uppy world record attempt, sponsored swim, silence or cycle or absolutely anything else you can think of, we will support you all the way. In the past, our supporters have raised funds by cycling from London to Paris and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Take part in a national/locally organised event

If you are interested in completing a Triathlon, Marathon, Mountain Climb, Channel Swim or any other professionally organised event, we will support your application, training and fundraising efforts and can provide you with TackleAfrica t-shirts and/or running vests.

Ask your employer

TackleAfrica are currently contacting companies and other organisations to help us in our World AIDS Day appeals. We are also looking for patrons, sponsors and any other offers of support. Many companies will match funds that you raise individually or give you paid ‘charity days’ if you are volunteering or organising fundraising events.

Examples of how you can ask your company to help are:

• ‘Wear your football shirt to work’ day – where members of your organisation make a donation to TackleAfrica and get the chance to show their support for their favourite team
• Company Football tournament – we can help you organise a football tournament within your organisation or against other organisations within your sector to raise money for TackleAfrica
• One game saves lives- Appeal to colleagues to donate 90 minutes of their salaries to TackleAfrica
• Give as you earn – check if your employer is set up for payroll giving, and invite us to give a presentation to your colleagues about our work and give people the opportunity to support us with a regular gift through their salary

World AIDS Day

World AIDS day takes place worldwide on 1st December each year and is the perfect time to arrange a fundraising event or ask your company to support TackleAfrica.  For information on TackleAfrica’s World AIDS Day fundraising ideas contact  info@tackleafrica.org

HIV and Young People in Africa

TackleAfrica works in sub-Saharan Africa, the part of the world most affected by HIV and AIDS where young people are one of the groups most at risk of infection. It is estimated that 10 million people aged 15-24 are living with HIV worldwide, this age group represents about 40% of all new infections. We aim to promote positive behaviour change among young people, by providing them with information about HIV and AIDS through the medium of football.

Despite the crucial role that young people have to play in mitigating the impact of HIV, the level of awareness remains low, especially in rural areas.  Young men and women are becoming sexually active in their teens, but parents, schools and community leaders are often reluctant to talk to them about sex before they are perceived to be adults, this is often too late.

We acknowledge that although we make every effort to include girls/young women and increase their participation in football, and many of our volunteer coaches are women, the fact remains that most of the young people we work with are boys/young men. We believe that they are an important target group, particulary those who do not attend school, as they are often missed out by more general HIV education or health programmes.

One of the strongest influences on the speed at which the HIV virus spreads is the sexual behaviour and attitudes of men.  It the communities where we work, it is usually men, not women, who hold the power in sexual relations, determining when and how often sex takes place and whether or not a condom is used. However old they are when they first have sex, attitudes to sexuality and women are formed at an early age. Helping boys to learn about relationships and sex before they are sexually active is key in influencing them to adapt their behaviour in future.

In order for the power relations to change, young women need to become empowered, educated and economically independent, but this cannot happen in isolation. Young men must be involved and included, learning to respect their sexual partners and women in general, they can become role models and peer educators in HIV prevention campaigns, helping to protect the next generation.

Football Marathon 2010 was – once again – the biggest and best yet.

On Saturday 7th August 2010, 400 players gathered at 7am on Clapham Common to play in the 9th Annual Football Marathon.   13 hours and 689 games of 6aside football later, the grand final saw Los Halcones triumph over My Face II on penalties to become Football Marathon Champions for 2010.   You can download the Final Standings here to see how everyone got on.

Of course the real winners were our beneficiaries in Africa, with over £100,000 raised so far to support our work in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa and Ghana.   A phenomenal amount of money to raise in one day, this achievement is testament to the dedication of TackleAfrica’s volunteers, players and fundraisers and is enough to fund TackleAfrica’s work for almost a whole calendar year, training 500 coaches and reaching 25,000 young people. 

Huge congratulations to Bear’s Flairs for winning the important ‘Best fundraising team’ accolade, becoming only the second ever team to raise over £6,000, another incredible achievement.    You can see the fundraising league table and overall running total here

Some stats:

Total games played:  690*

Total goals scored:  1,389

Pitches:  20*

Teams: 50*

Players: 400*

Total raised (so far):  £105,213

Number of teams exceeding fundraising target (so far):  23

Top scorers:  Brahzel (59)

Top points per game:  Brahzel (2.55)

Most conceded:  Matisse (73)

Accumulative money raised from Football Marathons 2002-2010:  £389,000

*New Football Marathon record.

You can view the ongoing Football Marathon Hall of Fame here

Special thanks to:

Football Marathon Organising Committee (FOC):  Charlie ‘Goalposts’ Gamble, Richard ‘Fixtures’ Silverton, Stephen ‘Flair’ Findlay, Tim ‘Spreadsheet’ Dawes, Gavin ‘Data Caravan’ Atkins, Neil ‘That’s Why You’re Secretary’ Peters

Volunteer Pitch Managers and General Organisers:  Kate Gamble, Beth Davidson, Mint Orr, Kate ‘Wag’ Weller, Tatyana Dimitrova, Lucy Pennycook, Kate Raleigh, Mark Shale, Robert Gamble, Laura Smith, Joe Payne,  Adrian Moorhead, Will Bancroft, Dave Allen, Jens Dueing, John Miller, Catherine Kellet, Claire Le Feuvre, Fiona Harding and Victor, Hector and Jeff from Lambeth Council.

Data Caravan Nerve Centre Team:  Damian ‘Data Entry’ Lobb, Paul ‘Referee to pitch 20′ Fitzsimmons, Stephanie ‘Superstar DJ’ Kelsey

Medics:  George Michaelides, Owen Harris, Niki ‘the Wheal of Fortune’ Wheal, Hannah ‘Handstand’ Richardson, Estelle ‘Laugho’ Laughton, the British Red Cross

Special Guests:  Rosemary Chileshe, Edgar Musonda, Science in Sports

Thanks to everyone involved in this incredible event, and we look forward to seeing you for Football Marathon 2011 – the ten year testimonial – when we hope to break the £500k accumulated total barrier.  If you want to give feedback, find out more or apply for a place on the Organising Committee for FM2011, please contact Tom at tom@tackleafrica.org

Photos to follow

Beneath the table you can see the difference that we can make if all teams hit or exceed their targets

Last updated: 19.08.2010

Team name	£ raised
Bear's Flairs	£6,280
Hardly Athletic	£4,453
World in Slow Motion	£3,658
Dynamo Kebab	£2,965
My Face II	£2,955
Diaby Does Gallas	£2,645
Real Madras	£2,595
Back to the Footballture	£2,485
Costa Boys	£2,450
The Gregson FC	£2,422
Whooneys	£2,290
Sawa Sawa	£2,247
Team Hayman (Old)	£2,245
A Football Team	£2,197
Real Relaxed	£2,115
Skribbla's Dribblas	£2,105
Joe Reeves and the Cougars	£2,082
Los Halcones	£2,006
Brahzel	£1,946
Jean Pierre Tap In	£1,919
South Star	£1,870
Dyslexic Untied	£1,811
Sub Standard Liege	£1,790
Athletic Divers Athletic	£1,647
Inter Lucia UK	£1,570
Rocksteady	£1,517
Lurch United	£1,509
DJ in a Cap	£1,465
Barearsealona	£1,430
Smack my pitch up	£1,392
Afc Corinthians	£1,385
The Surrey Boys	£1,345
Banner's Fury	£1,320
Samba Samba	£1,311
Athletico Raymus	£1,220
Wii Not Fit	£1,127
Buzz Bomb	£1,072
Bombay Bad Boys	£1,070
Hand of Dog United	£1,020
Your Mum's Athletic	£1,010
Inter Minaan bread	£927
Vuvuzelas	£890
Roger Milla	£838
Bayer Adrink II	£796
Streetleague (tbc)	£770
Room Upstairs	£718
Middle Class White Boys	£695
Entrance By Blimp	£615
Interminan	£293
Matisse	£160

 Total Raised so far (including Gift Aid):  £105,477

 £125,000     means we can expand our operations, working with more people and saving more lives

£100,000     represents a whole year’s running costs, reaching 15,000 young Africans

£75,000       allows us to fund full time regional co-ordinators in each of our partner countries

£50,000       enables us to run two month long coaching projects with each of our partners 

£25,000       pays for the design, printing and distribution of 10,000 manuals

This TackleAfrica project was delivered in partnership with FRACODEP (St Francis Community Development Programme), delivering HIV education and awareness to young people in Kisumu and Siaya.

Kisumu is a large town on the edge of Lake Victoria with a number of large outlying communities with poor resources.

Siaya is smaller town in a more rural area, but is an administrative centre with outlying villages in the countryside.

The coaches on this project were Neil Peters, Paul Peters, Chris Clapham and Adrian Moorhead from the UK and TackleAfrica trained coach Nelson Wanyama from another partner organisation SAIPEH (Support Activities in Poverty Eradication and Health).

This was the third successive year that TackleAfrica have partnered with FRACODEP.  The project followed up work that TackleAfrica undertook in 2009 when they trained a number of coaches and teaches to deliver HIV education and awareness through football using TackleAfrica coaching manual. 

The 2010 follow up project looked to build on the success of the 2009 project, to see how the local coaches were delivering the drills from the manual to their teams, and to demonstrate new drills from the new 2010 World Cup addition of the TackleAfrica coaching manual.

The project was split into two week segments, with the first week working with teams in Siaya, and the second in Kisumu.

Each week followed a similar pattern which involved coaching teams and youth groups during the week, and talking to teachers and coaches about the new TackleAfrica manual.

At the end of each work there was a football tournament which FRACODEP used as a method of community engagement and for raising awareness of HIV issues.  Voluntary HIV testing and counselling staff were available at the tournament in Siaya and players were encouraged to find out their HIV status through these services.  TackleAfrica coaches were also on hand to provide advice on football and to give information on HIV issues.

The project was a useful way of delivering HIV education and awareness to young people by engaging them outside of the class room through football.  The football coaching drills in the TackleAfrica manual are good for coaching football in their own right, but they also contain a useful HIV message within them. 

Football is extremely popular in Kenya and the TackleAfrica model is a great way of engaging communities to deliver these valuable and life saving messages to the people that we work with.

The TackleAfrica team on this project were also able to meet new contacts in Kenya, with the possibility of partnering with them on future projects.  These included KYFA (Kisumu Youth Football Association) that operates a large football league in Kisumu and has access to around 80 teams and coaches.

Tom’s background is in fundraising in the disaster relief and international development sector, having run his own fundraising company and worked as Fundraising Analyst at the British Red Cross.   Tom’s volunteer work for TackleAfrica raising over a quarter of a million pounds led to him being shortlisted for the fundraising volunteer of the year by the Institute of Fundraising in 2010.

Following the 2009 projects in the Ssi District of Uganda, near Lake Victoria, TackleAfrica coaches Tom Colborne and Hugh Thompson delivered a 4 day course in using the World Cup edition of the TackleAfrica HIV education through football coaching to 12 local coaches, teachers and youth leaders in May 2010. 

ASDHI (African Social Development and Health Initiatives) serves some of the most vulnerable communities in Africa, with HIV prevalence rates in isolated high-poverty fishing villages estimated at up to 30%.  TackleAfrica and ASDHI – run by KCCC director Peter Byansi – are two of the only NGOs working regularly with these communities, and the appeal of football has proved a incredibly effective technique for engaging many local people, who travelled for miles to attend the course and subsequent gala event. 

Most communities around Lake Victoria have no electricity or running water, and education is a luxury rather than an assumed right as the every day struggles of subsistence existence take priority.  Young women regularly miss one week’s schooling each month simply due to a lack of sanitary towels, and access to HIV information, testing, care and treatment are severely limited.  With TackleAfrica’s support, ASDHI provides HIV education through football across several districts in schools and football clubs, as well as testing and counselling facilities at TackleAfrica-funded tournaments and anti retro-viral treatment.

Following the course, 5 teams played over 2 days in the ASDHI TackleAfrica gala.  126 players and spectators tested for HIV at the event, including TackleAfrica coach Tom Colborne.

TackleAfrica are now into the 3rd year of their programme with Kamwokya Christian Caring Community in Kampala and in May 2010, coaches Tom Colborne and Hugh Thompson delivered the first project in Africa using the new World Cup edition of the TackleAfrica coaching manual.

25 coaches from organisations across were trained in a week-long workshop based at the KCCC Treasure Life Centre with the support of local volunteers Moses Kibirango and Matuvo Eric Paul and the Technical Director of the Ugandan Football Association, Usmani Lebowah.

The coaches, many of whom have been delivering TackleAfrica HIV education through football coaching sessions for up to three years already, were given additional training in coaching methodology, session planning and designing TackleAfrica drills as well as in the issues relating to the new HIV sections of the manual, Living with HIV and Relationships.

Coaches trained: 25
Number of young people benefitting regularly from training: 1250

The KCCC Allstars World Cup sponsored by TackleAfrica

37 teams played in the TackleAfrica World Cup, organised by KCCC to raise awareness of TackleAfrica HIV programmes. Teams took part over two days in 4 different categories – U17s, Academies, Women and Organisations – at Ketante Primary School, with over 600 players involved. TackleAfrica coaches ran drills before the semi finals and finals as well as helping out with refereeing, formalities and the all important trophy presentation.

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