type social enterprise founded 2004 founder jim cogan obe headquarters uk number of locations kenya zambia ghana key people glenn cummings ceo website www.aliveandkicking.org alive and kicking is an african social enterprise that manufactures sports balls to provide balls for children create jobs for adults and promote health education through sport . 1 it states its vision as being of an africa where every child can play with a real ball where thousands of jobs are sustained in the production of balls and where sport contributes to the eradication of deadly disease . 2 history edit alive and kicking was established in 2004 by jim cogan obe and currently operates in kenya zambia and ghana . cogan had experience of east african enterprise having previously set up student partnerships worldwide now called restless development . after uefa donated 81 000 alive and kicking balls across africa operations started in zambia in 2007 using space on zambeef s leather site in lusaka . following jim cogan s death in september 2007 alive and kicking was taken under the stewardship of the then chairman of trustees james flecker . the enterprise continued to grow and alive and kicking south africa began stitching balls in wellington western cape in 2008 . the south african branch could not establish itself in the market for balls however and stopped production in july 2009 . in 2009 it was featured in bloomberg businessweek as one of the top 3 products that might change the world . 3 in 2010 alive and kicking was recognised by the guardian for its employment opportunities for people with disabilities . 4 when dan magness broke the world record for longest distance walked while doing keepie uppie in 2010 he did so using an alive and kicking ball . 5 they received considerable media coverage during the 2010 fifa world cup in south africa from among others their trustee henry winter . 6 they were back in the news in 2011 criticising hyundai s donation of 1 million footballs to africa as being environmentally unsuitable and undermining local enterprise . 7 the continued stability of the kenyan and zambian operations led to the opening of aandk ghana in 2012 which aims to utilise the large west african market and ultimately employ 50 people . 8 in august 2012 the launch of alive and kicking ghana was featured by metro . 9 in september 2012 alive and kicking achieved its first retail presence outside of africa as its balls for africa initiative was launched in john lewis . 10 in november 2012 it was announced that manchester city and england defender micah richards had become an ambassador for the organisation . 11 in total alive and kicking has produced over 450 000 balls . alive and kicking s headquarters are located in london and it is a registered charity in the uk . references edit alive and kicking . alive and kicking on facebook . bloomberg newsweek 25 products that might just change the world . taylor louise 12 june 2010 . alive and kicking s zambia project has changed alison tafeni s life . the guardian . london . man sets keepy uppy world record in london . bbc news . 26 january 2010 . winter henry 29 march 2010 . world cup 2010 poverty is alive and kicking in south africa s townships . the daily telegraph . london . scott matt 11 july 2011 . fifa s scheme goes flat . the guardian . london . http www.aliveandkicking.org where we work ghana alive and kicking providing footballs jobs and aids awareness in africa . metro . london . http www.aliveandkicking.org alive kicking launches balls for africa exclusively at john lewis micah richards becomes ambassador for african football social enterprise . external links edit official website alive and kicking on facebook alive and kicking on twitter retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title alive % 26 kicking social enterprise & oldid 705782796 categories social enterprisesorganizations established in 2004 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 19 february 2016 at 15 12 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view