At a time when TackleAfrica have just cemented their relationship with Alive & Kicking Kenya by recruiting a joint staff member, Managing Director Claire Le Feuvre looks at the benefits of NGO partnerships in Africa.

All of TackleAfrica’s work is delivered through African partners, who provide relevant expertise, experience and access to large numbers of young people affected by or at risk of HIV.  In turn we empower our partners to combine HIV education into football coaching via training, support and resources.  Together we reached about 22,000 young people last year – and it’s our relationships with our partners that allows an organisation of TackleAfrica’s size to have such a huge impact.  

 Our partnership with Alive & Kicking Kenya is one of the most fruitful and we have high hopes for our work together in 2011.  A&K are a social enterprise who train local stitchers to make high quality durable footballs for use in Africa and for commercial sale around the world.  They provide employment, footballs and health messages to people in Kenya and Zambia and the synergy with TackleAfrica’s work is obvious. 

In December we recruited a staff member who will sit in A&K’s Nairobi office but is funded and supported by TackleAfrica.  The post will add TackleAfrica’s resources and expertise to A&K’s existing health-promotion through football roadshow, and help us develop a stronger and larger in-country network of coaches with other partners. 

As an organisation with only 2.5 FTE in the UK, this also represents not just a significant capacity increase, but a major step in us handing over and developing our expertise to and with Africans; ultimately the people who know best about what’s needed and how it can best be delivered. 

Claire Le Feuvre, Managing Director, January 2011

For a full list of our current partners, click here

Keep an eye on our website for more information on our work in East Africa and an introduction to our new staff member in Nairobi.

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