Regional kit
design competition

Get involved and win a brand new football strip!

Score Ethiopia! Wash & Go shampoo's 'SCORE ETHIOPIA' campaign is giving your school the chance to score a brand new, stylish football strip!

We're inviting pupils from your school to take part in a 'kit exchange' with a school in Ethiopia. Taking part is easy; all your pupils need to do is be creative and have fun designing the ultimate football kit.

And if your school’s effort is voted the snazziest strip we will turn it into a full custom made kit - 12 shirts, 12 shorts, 12 socks plus a full goalie set. The winning strip will be awarded to an Ethiopian school and your school will bag a brand new kit designed by an Ethiopian school. The Ethiopian pupil who creates the best strip will be flown to England to complete the ‘kit exchange’.

What is ‘SCORE ETHIOPIA’?

During the 2005/06 football season Wash & Go embarked on a football strip giveaway. Footy fanatics across the country won a range of brilliant kits. One such winner was a lady called Mairead Macbeth, an aid worker in Ethiopia. Rather than donating the kit to her local pub or Sunday league team she decided to donate the strip to a team she had met in Lalibela during her support work in Ethiopia. It was from this act of kindness that a new charitable campaign was born - 'SCORE ETHIOPIA'.

To make ‘SCORE ETHIOPIA’ happen, Wash & Go and Link Ethiopia have teamed up with Liverpool and England football legend John Barnes. Together, our goal is to help increase awareness of Ethiopia’s needs, using the universal language of football to raise funds and deliver real aid and amenities to Ethiopia. Link Ethiopia is dedicated to supporting young people in the north of Ethiopia and this is where the ‘kit exchange’ fits in.

Why should you get involved?

Ethiopia is still one of the world’s five poorest countries. But Ethiopians are soccer mad! However, they do not have the amenities to access the appropriate equipment required to play the game. For example, footballs are regularly made from any discarded clothes rolled up into a ball. There are very few football pitches, and towns also often lack basic facilities such as access to clean water, electricity and toilets. Football kits are likewise an essential element for developing a football team.

How can you bag your school kit?

Included in this pack is an entry form that can be photocopied and given to pupils within your school giving them the chance to design their own kit. It can either be a class or an individual effort.

All entries will be judged by an expert panel and we hope to involve readers from a local paper to help pick the winning design. The competition is open to any child under the age of 11 and it would be appreciated if you could pass on this pack to the relevant teacher(s).

There are many other ways to get involved...

The ‘kit exchange’ is just one of a number of ways to get involved in our initiative supporting Ethiopia. Perhaps you would like to start up a school link between your school and one in Ethiopia with Link Ethiopia’s help? Maybe you fancy involving your school, your class or individual pupils in a child sponsorship scheme aimed at helping children in Ethiopia? Or even organise your own exciting fundraising events, to help Ethiopian schoolchildren, such as a football fun day with a sponsored penalty shoot-out. For further information on ways you and your school can get involved, or if you would like any help or advice with your fundraising events please contact me, Amy Watson, on 0161 828 5400 or browse the rest of the Link Ethiopia website (www.linkethiopia.org). But the first step to kicking off your support is to get your pupils to design a winning kit!

I hope that you will support this campaign and give the children in your school the opportunity to take part in what promises to be a great competition.

Don’t delay kick off as the final whistle blows soon!