My thoughts began to turn towards September 2020 and my next visit. The initial plan is to hold a week long training course for primary school teachers and local coaches in football, rugby, netball, cricket and volleyball. After full participation each school will get a cricket kit, football, rugby ball, netball and volleyball as we attempt to develop Under 12 sports. I would also spend time with the Youth Coaches that Wachisa will train in March 2020 to continue the work we started together in September 2019. It was also our intention to develop netball along the same lines as the U12 football. I wanted to work with Jane Mvula in delivering a Young Leaders in Netball course. I would need 30 balls of each and 15 cricket kits plus whatever other sports kit I could collect. I thought of ways I could collect kit. I publicised a ‘unique’ North to North Sports Link where North Northumberland was asked to support Northern Malawi in terms of recycling old sports kit. I circulated it as widely as possible using Facebook.

We needed small kits to support the Under 12 football project so I contacted all the primary schools in North Northumberland. I gave talks at Whittingham and Shilbottle primary schools and they donated old kits. Red Row FC got in touch as they had two old kits. I met Stan Hirst one night at training. One was a light blue and white kit in the Chitipa Utd colours. Pickford Kamanga the Chitipa Utd club secretary said they would like it. Chitipa Utd has just survived this season in the Super League of Malawi. Coach Alex Ngwira and the players have done a great job on a very tight budget. The new kit with their name and logo on will be a nice gift ahead of the 2021 season. I was still looking for more football kits but the April 1^st deadline for shipping was getting closer. In one week I must have collected thirty plus kits. South Edinburgh Community FC had organised and recycled their spare kit and I drove up to collect. I met Paul Doig the Community Development Coach. A few days later I went down to Red House Farm near Newcastle and collected more from their Chairman Barry Mann. That night it was quickly counted and packed.

I contacted the North East Netball Association. Leah Kennedy the Community Development Officer said they had kit and I should come and collect from their office in Newcastle. I struggled to carry 27 balls and a load of kit across the city to the train station. It was worth it. We could now make plans for the netball coaching course that I hoped would be supported by Jane Mvula, the sister of Malawian netball star Joyce Mvula and Mr Nkhongira from the sports office at the education department in Chitipa. We had everything we needed to train teachers and young coaches in an attempt to set up an Under 12 mini netball league. In Chitipa there was already one set of adjustable netball posts and I hoped we could make some more.

The Northumberland cricket community also answered the call. Ian Wardle from the ECB gave me five sets of softball kit. Tom Vickers as usual found me lots of kit. Dave Wright from Alnwick CC and Steve Nutt from Tillside CC kindly gave us some old kit. Grant Watson from Alnwick Tennis Club recycled 200 old used tennis balls. I was given rugby balls and cones by Alnwick Juniors, North Gosford Academy and the Duchess in Alnwick.

One afternoon I was walking around Alnwick asking for sponsors for my upcoming cycle and I met a guy called Brad in ‘House and Home’. We started talking about Malawi and he said his shop stocks products made in Malawi. A fair trade company in Stoke called Cycle of Good collect old inner tubes, coffee sacks and lorry tarpaulins in the UK, ship them to Blantyre where they have established a local NGO that makes bags and wallets. The NGO employs 100 local people and has trained them up to make these products. The products are sold worldwide and profits support initiatives in Malawi. They also refurbish old second hand British Postal service bikes which sell for £280. If you buy one then one gets donated back to their charity in Malawi. I got in touch and they offered me space in their shipping containers that leave every 4-6 weeks for Blantyre via the port of Beira in Mozambique. The next one is due to leave on April 1^st. I would be able to send a lot more kit for a lot less money. They would charge a £100 a cubic metre. Rowland would have to collect from Blantrye but I couldn’t see a problem. In my garage I had 25 boxes and 7 bags ready to head to Chitipa. Inside were over 40 football kits, 125 football boots, 50 new footballs, 14 volleyballs, 30 used netballs, 30 used rugby balls, 15 softball cricket sets and a whole lot more. Cycle of Good told me the next container was due to leave on April 1^st so I made plans to get it to Stoke where their depot was. I need to send Rowland all the details of the freight and he can then apply for the waiver. The freight will take about 3 months to get to Blantyre via the port of Beira in Mozambique. Cycle of Good need the waiver to clear the goods on arrival in Blantyre. They will then ring Rowland to collect. It all seemed pretty straight forward. It would give Rowland time to think about organising transport to Blantyre to collect.

The equipment that we had started collecting back in October 2019 now totalled 38 boxes, 700 kg's and about 6 cubic metres. In mid November it started its journey from Alnwick to Chitipa. A friend Adam Ferry took the freight from my garage to William Hackett Ltd depot in Alnwick where Roddy Bell had organised for the boxes to be delivered to Stoke and the Cycle of Good depot. They did their calculations and the final bill came to £835. The freight was loaded onto the final container of 2020. The donated kit from all over Northumberland was finally about to start the journey to Malawi. It would arrive fingers crossed by sometime in mid February. At the time I was reading about shipping delays out of the UK and truck drivers strikes on the Malawi/Mozambique border.

After 4 months the Cycle of Good container arrived in Blantyre. Rowland Harawa was there to collect the 38 boxes. I had sent 300,000 MK to cover the costs of transporting the boxes to Chitipa. Rowland found a functioning government vehicle and after a service in Mzuzu it headed south to Blantyre. There had been some confusion with Rowland's duty waiver. Initially it said Lilongwe Port and had the wrong number of boxes. I think Rowland thought he still needed his clearing agents involved to get the goods through the MRA. I had met Sam 'Sparklin' Sozela through Facebook. He was the Cycle of Good contact in Blantyre. He noticed the mistakes and told Rowland what he had to do. On April 8th the container was cleared and opened. Our boxes were there.

I had sent Rowland about £300 to be able to collect the equipment from Blantyre. The equipment, having left the UK 5 months earlier had finally arrived at the Chitipa District Sports Office. There was a real buzz around Chitipa and lots of communication with Rowland and Wachisa, who were managing the kit very well. Chitipa Utd FC finally got the donated kit from Red Row Welfare FC. Namuyemba FC U12's looked great it their new kit that had come from Edinburgh South Community FC. The UK clubs really enjoyed seeing their old kits in Chitipa. Wachisa met all senior coaches from the 8 football clubs who had participated in the Young Coaches training and kit was distributed.

Over the coming weeks kits and equipment were distributed and pictures arrived for donors in the UK to see. The comments were amazing from the UK clubs and the effort to get the kits to Malawi worth while. The U17 and U14 football leagues got underway with all the registered ten teams wearing their new kits donated by Community Sports Leaders Africa. In reality many more teams had benefitted with new kits and hopefully more teams will officially register in the coming years. Wachisa was busy but his big event was still to come. He was making plans for the U12 festival as soon as the leagues had ended. The training and festivals at U12 level had successfully fed players into the U14 league this year. The plan was working.

In the shipment was also softball cricket equipment for the primary schools and a tennis stand and net with lots of rackets and tennis balls. I was keen to see this distributed and being used. I hope for a cricket festival but the Education Office Sports Officer seemed reluctant to organise it. I asked Rowland to encourage her but lots of excuses were being made. In the end I asked Rowland to hold a meeting and distribute the cricket equipment. It had finally made its way from North Northumberland to Northern Malawi.