NEWSLETTER
October 2017
MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
Welcome to the latest Alive and Kicking newsletter. As always it has been a busy few months for the Alive and Kicking team. I was fortunate enough to collect the Beyond Sport Award for Employment and Education on behalf of 150-plus members of the Alive and Kicking team. It was great recognition for the hard work put in by everyone in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and the UK and a great honour for me personally to collect the award. Whilst the award is great, it is what we do on the ground that makes us all proud on a daily basis. This edition primarily focuses on Alive and Kicking’s work in Ghana. As well as learning a bit about the need for A+K in Ghana, you’ll get to read about A+Ks partnership with Arsenal Football Club to deliver a great football based health programme raising awareness about malaria and HIV. You will also hear first-hand from our Head of Printing, ‘Magic Moses’, as to why the regular, fair wage paid by Alive and Kicking is so important to him and his family. In a first for A+K, we will be participating in the Big Give Christmas Appeal this year. We ask you to consider supporting A+Ks health programmes in Ghana by donating through thebiggive.org.uk during the first week in December. Save your pennies until then as everything donated during that week will be match funded by the Big Give.
This will be the last newsletter that I will be sharing with you; after 4 years at the helm of A+K I will be departing at the end of October. I have enjoyed my time with A+K immensely and will continue to support the organisation in any way that I can. I know that I am leaving the place in good hands; our staff and Board members here in the UK and in Kenya, Zambia and Ghana are an outstanding group of committed people and I thank them all for their support and hard work over the past four plus years. Happy reading! Glenn
BEYOND SPORT AWARD WINNERS
In July CEO Glenn Cummings travelled to New York as a guest of Beyond Sport to receive the ‘Sport for Quality Education and Employment Award’. Beyond Sport is an organisation that is dedicated to bringing together influencers and innovators from sport, business, government and development to discuss how sport can address social issues and trigger positive change. Glenn stated: "It is a great honour to accept this award on behalf of all Alive and Kicking staff. To be recognised by our peers is a brilliant endorsement of Alive and Kicking’s unique way of using sport to create proper jobs and deliver health education. This is an amazing achievement by a committed, talented group of people". Along with the prestige of winning this globally renowned award A+K received an incredible donation of £25,000. THANK YOU BEYOND SPORT!
BIG GIVE CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE
For the first time in our history Alive and Kicking is taking part in the national Christmas fundraising initiative "theBigGive.org.uk Christmas Challenge"! We would love for you to be a part of our campaign. All money raised will go towards our health program in Ghana. The Christmas Challenge, founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Alec Reed CBE, is the UK’s biggest online match funding campaign which helps UK-registered charities raise funds for their cause. Since the Big Give launched the campaign in 2008, the Christmas Challenge has raised over £78 million for more than 2,800 charity projects generating massive interest in the media and from general public across the UK. The Christmas Challenge consists of 3 stages. So far we have secured £5,000 worth of match funding from the first 2 stages. These funds will be accessed when we raise an additional £5,000 from online donations.
Show your Christmas generosity and support to help raise £5,000 in 1 week!
Stage 1 A+K secured £2,500 of pledges from our Trustees and long term supporters. This is now in the match funding pot. Woooo! Stage 2 A+K secured a further £2,500 from The Coles-Medlock Foundation which is now in the second match funding pot. Woooo! Stage 3 This is the really important bit! A+K needs to receive a total of £5,000 from online donations during the week of Tuesday 28th November – 12pm Tuesday 5th December via thebiggive.org.uk
You can help us in 3 ways: Donating online between Tuesday 28th November - Tuesday 5thDecember at thebiggive.org.uk Letting all your friends and family know by sharing https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/charity/view/7655/alive-and-kicking Hold a fundrasing event at work Make some cookies or cakes to sell and donate the proceeds. (click here for a great football cookie recipe) , or organise a FESTIVE / FOOTBALL KIT FRIDAY on 1st December and charge £2.
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12:00 | 28/11/2017 until 12:00 | 5/12/2017
Population - 27 million Capital city - Accra 29% of the population live below the poverty line = 7.83m people, nearly the population of London 80% are in informal employment - 21.6m people 7.3m current Malaria cases - 27% of the population
SPOTLIGHT ON GHANA
The Need Preventable disease claims many lives in Ghana; deaths that are completely avoidable. The HIV prevalence rate in Ghana stands at roughly 2.4%, up from 1.9% in 2015 (Ghana AIDS Commission). HIV/AIDS is the fifth (5%) biggest killer in Ghana; malaria is the third (8% - WHO) killing a combined 27,000 people annually. Every year 7.3 million people contract malaria in Ghana, with roughly a third of these cases being children under 5. The majority of malaria related deaths are in children under 5 The Solution Education is an essential tool in combating the spread of preventable, deadly diseases. The dissemination of knowledge into rural Ghanaian communities about how to stop the contraction of HIV/AIDS and malaria will play an incredibly important role within communities. Educative sports drills encourage participation from the young while also delivering key messages in a clear, memorable way. Ghanaians love sport, using it to educate about health harnesses that passion for powerful social change.
The Health Awareness Programme aims at educating young people about the risks of preventable diseases and encourages them to make healthy life decision using sport as the tool in conveying information. The combination of sports with health education is effective because sport's mass appeal makes it the perfect vehicle for it. Supported by the Arsenal in the Community Gappers programme we trained 35 sports teachers from Tema, Accra and Cape Coast. Over the 6 weeks, 1,500 school children and 300 young football players took part in our vital HIV/AIDS and Malaria football drill sessions at schools and academies. Our health coaches conduct questionnaires before and after every health drill during the programme, collating data that shows our impact: 18% increase in knowledge of HIV/AIDS 22% increase in knowledge of Malaria With your support we can reach thousands of more children and young people across Ghana increasing their knowledge on vital preventable diseases.
2017 HEALTH PROGRAMME, GHANA
HEALTH DRILLS IN GHANA
DON'T FORGET TO SUPPORT ALIVE AND KICKING IN
Joel caught up with Moses Amoah, a 37 year old printer who has been with A+K for just under 4 years; this is his first formal position.