Football charity Afrikit, set up by five University of Sheffield students, has seen a surge in donations of football shirts following high-profile transfers at the end of the January.
Afrikit has received over 200 shirts in the last week after the transfers of Andrew Carroll and Fernando Torres to Liverpool and Chelsea respectively.
The charity was created by third year students Jack Hands, Elliot Bryan, Andrew Trott and Terry Denness after a friend wearing a Manchester United shirt in Tanzania was swamped by local children wanting to play football.
Politics student Jack Hands said: “Over the last 12 months, we have gone from painstakingly asking friends, family and local teams for donations to being a nationally recognised sports development charity, receiving hundreds of shirts.
“It began when Fernando Torres left Liverpool and signed for Chelsea with many fans burning kits with Torres printed on the back.
“However, due to a Twitter campaign people suggested they should give the kits to us, which has resulted in our website hits going from around 20 a day to well in their thousands and growing.”
Afrikit, which was founded in 2009, is now so popular that kit bins have been set up at every Decathlon sports shop in the UK to encourage donations.
Other shirt donations come from individuals, football clubs, and certain professional clubs.
Hands said: “Of course the media exposure has been phenomenal in terms of raising our profile.
“In the past week we have been on Sky Sports News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, and offers keep flooding in. Great for Afrikit, not so good for our degrees!
“I would personally absolutely love to expand Afrikit by creating a full time project working to support communities by using sport to overcome barriers, teaching new skills and fostering better community relations.
“Hopefully next year I will be talking to Forge Press about how we did expand and really make a positive difference.”
Afrikit has collected over 3,000 shirts and have donated to 10 African countries. It sends shirts to charities such as Kick 4 Life, who ask African children to take a shirt in return for an HIV test.
A spokesperson for the University of Sheffield said: “The University is extremely proud of the initiative and generosity demonstrated by the students who set up Afrikit and will always encourage students to pursue such worthwhile endeavours.”
Anyone wishing to donate kit can find out how to do so by visiting: www.afrikit.co.uk