Earlier this year, Fownhope FC, via the Hereford-Muheza Link Society, donated some of their old football kits to charity.

This week Michael Naya, a Hereford health worker who facilitated the donation, sent this picture back to Fownhope FC of workers and nurses from Teule Hospital, in the Muheza District of Tanzania, sporting their new kit.

The links between Herefordshire and The Muheza Hospital in north-eastern Tanzania began in 1985. The Hereford-Muheza Link Society have continued to strengthen the link each year, by shipping donated goods, arranging educational visits, assisting with education at Muheza, and by providing administrative help for Muheza Hospice Care.

Roy Ovel, of Fownhope FC, contacted the Gazette enthused about his club's participation in the scheme. He said: "Michael contacted us about the project he was involved in, which sends sports equipment out to Tanzania every year. He approached us with a view to us donating some of our old kit.

"He came and collected the kit and sent it out there. I think there's scope for Michael to gain donations from other clubs and even contacting the Herefordshire Football Association. Most clubs change their kit every couple of years or throw the old stuff away so it seems like a better idea to donate it to this cause."

The Fownhope kit was in the 20ft container which the Hereford-Muheza Link Society sent out to Africa in June. The priority was mostly on sending medical items including X-Ray boxes, surplus beds from when Hereford's General Hospital closed, crutches or zimmer frames, which in the UK are only provided new but can be used again in Tanzania. Other items included goods for other health, school or agricultural links between places in Herefordshire or Shropshire and north-eastern Tanzania, and sporting equipment.

Michael Naya said: "Teule Hospital has a nurse's training school of about 200 students training up to degree level, but don't have the resources to be kitted out in proper football strips or netball strips, or balls for their sporting activities. These are fairly grown up males and females, although in different sizes and shapes.

"I help and work in their operating theatres, unpaid of course, on a yearly basis and they tell me about the things they need.

"Football is extremely popular in Tanzania. They follow the Premier League and they play in a league in the hospital complex. It's no