Kick 4 Life
Kick4Life F.C. (K4L) is the world's first football club exclusively dedicated to social change. Currently playing in the Lesotho Premier League the club is a registered charity in Lesotho, the UK and the USA, and aims to utilise the power of football to change the lives and long-term prospects of young people in Lesotho.
The registered UK charity Kick4Life, founded in 2005, uses football as a tool for promoting health education and awareness in Lesotho.[1]
History
2005. Kick4Life was set up by Steve Fleming and Pete Fleming, brothers from Southampton, UK, having successfully dribbled a football for 250 miles across Malawi in Africa.
2006. Kick4Life selected Lesotho for the focus of its efforts using sport to address HIV/AIDS. The charity was officially launched at St Mary's Stadium, home of Southampton F.C.
2007. Operations began in Lesotho with the launch of a health education and life-skills curriculum and the Test Your Team campaign. The first Kick4Life All Stars tour takes place in November.
2008. England coach Fabio Capello attended a Test Your Team event in Lesotho and called on the world of football to do more in the fight against poverty and disease. Prince Harry also visited Kick4Life. The charity is named Best Implementing Project for HIV/AIDS by the National AIDS Commission.
2009. At the Score4Africa Awards Kick4Life is named Best Project for Health.
2010. Kick4Life wins the Beyond Sport Award for Health and a team of young people from Kick4Life represent Lesotho at Festival 2010, a tournament held in South Africa as part of the 2010 World Cup.
2011. Kick4Life secures a site in the heart of Maseru and the Lesotho Football for Hope Centre is opened by Lucas Radebe. The centre includes a 5-a-side artificial pitch, a building including classrooms, office space and health testing facilities, a vegetable garden, small library and 11-a-side grass pitch. The charity wins the Community Award at the Global Sport Forum in Barcelona.
2012. Kick4Life registers as a charitable foundation in the USA with an office opening in New York. The charity wins the Best Practice Award from the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund in recognition of its emerging social enterprises.
2013. Steve fleming, Co-founder of Kick4Life, is elected to represent the organisation as a board member of streetfootballworld for a two year term. Kick4Life is also named a Rising Star by the Stars Foundation.
2014: Two major social enterprises are opened at the Kick4Life Centre. A restaurant called No.7 and the K4L Hotel & Conference Centre. The enterprises generate income for the delivery of the charity's programmes as well as providing structured training and employment opportunities for young people.
ELEVEN
ELEVEN is a book written and published in 2010 by Kick4Life Co-founder Steve Fleming, with foreword by England national football team coach, Fabio Capello. The book tells the true stories of eleven individuals – the number of people in a football team – and their struggles with poverty, war and disease, and how ultimately, football has helped to change their lives. The book was published by Pitch Publishing.