A Lincoln City kit is inspiring youngsters across South Africa, Mozambique and Uganda after a donation from KitAid.
The Oasis (Football for Life) team in Beira (Mozambique), the area which was heavily impacted by Cyclone Idai in March, received the kit because of an amazing chain of community-based charities stretching right back to Sincil Bank.
The youth team in Beira is now aiming high in its local league thanks to the kit donation from KitAid.
KitAid is a charity that recycles your once loved football kit and distributes to children and adults across the developing world.
KitAid is a charity that recycles your once loved football kit and distributes to children and adults across the developing world. Since 1998 around 621,000 items have been donated. Former Lincoln City and England manager Graham Taylor was also a patron of KitAid.
Lincoln fan Thomas Enright is a regional Co-ordinator and KitAid Trustee, who collected the kit during a Lincoln Disability FC training session.
When the kit was no longer needed at LDFC, volunteer Sophie Bartup, contacted KitAid to see if it would be of use anywhere else. The kit was then taken down to KitAid’s storage in Hatfield.
Proudly wearing a Lincoln City shirt.
Thomas said: “At KitAid we have a saying that ‘It’s more than just a shirt’. Football is loved across the world and the donation of your no-longer needed kits makes a massive impact in helping social inclusion and sports development in communities with almost next to nothing.”
Sophie Bartup, former volunteer at Lincoln Disability FC, added: “It is so inspiring to see the teams wearing their shirts so proudly. I really never thought these kits would be worn again”.
Dave Caswell, the Global Co-ordinator at Oasis Football for Life, personally took several sets of kit from KitAid to projects across South Africa, Mozambique and Uganda.
The kit was passed on to Dave Caswell, the Global Co-ordinator at Oasis Football for Life, which is a charity that works with marginalised young people to build their self-esteem and help them make wise and health choices.
Dave then personally took several sets of kit from KitAid to projects across South Africa, Mozambique and Uganda. He also provided football coaching sessions for the Oasis FFL youth team in Beira.
He said: “We’re grateful to KitAid for the support of kits and balls for our projects, which provides a great encouragement and motivation for our teams, and helps to develop that sense of identity and belonging that is so important to the vision of FFL.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite