Football helps get the children off the streets

Manchester United have donated two full replica strips for a street children's football team in the commercial capital, Blantyre.

The donation was in response to an on-air challenge by BBC Radio Five Live.

Whilst reporting live from Malawi on the food crisis in the country, Radio Five Live presenter Rajesh Mirchandani challenged Manchester United to donate a complete team strip to Chisomo FC, a team of street children from Chisomo children's club in Blantyre.

The club responded by donating two sets of shirts, shorts and socks, plus a goalkeeper's strip and two footballs, which have now arrived in Malawi.

Football helps the children to have fun, to realise they have talents and to learn discipline Chisomo FC coach Macdonald Nkhutabasa

The club was formed to enable children to leave the streets by helping to rebuild their self-confidence.

"The street children we met are crazy about football - to them it's so much more than just a game - it helps them cope with their troubles," says Rajesh Mirchandani.

Bare feet

Chisomo FC is Malawi's only street children's football team.

When the team first entered Blantyre under-14's league, the other teams were not used to playing football with street children.

Manchester United's kit is famous across the world

The street children were social outcasts and played without football boots and strips unlike many other teams.

Last year Chisomo FC finished ninth in the Blantyre district league - their first season - out of a total of 20 teams.

Last season's highlight was winning a local tournament where they outplayed some of Blantyre's strongest teams.

"Football helps the children to have fun, to realise they have talents and to learn discipline. To play for Chisomo the children have to work hard at school or at the apprenticeships they are doing," says Chisomo FC coach Macdonald Nkhutabasa.

Chisomo Children's Club, supported by Christian relief and development agency Tearfund, works with some of Malawi's most vulnerable children.

Many of them are forced into a life on the streets by poverty and HIV/Aids.

Since 1998, the club has worked to enable hundreds of children to return to school or start apprenticeships in skills such as carpentry and metal work.

Many of these children have also been reunited with families.