YOUNG children in Africa will be playing football in Godmanchester Rovers kits after they were taken to Lesotho by a Great Stukeley man. Bren Vaughan, 36, took four Godmanchester kits and one Liverpool kit to the country as part of the Kick4Life charity

YOUNG children in Africa will be playing football in Godmanchester Rovers kits after they were taken to Lesotho by a Great Stukeley man.

Bren Vaughan, 36, took four Godmanchester kits and one Liverpool kit to the country as part of the Kick4Life charity, a scheme that is trying to break the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

School children are invited to take part in a football tournament and get tested for HIV/AIDS.

The team which won the tournament was given one of the football kits, while another was given to the school which had to most children tested.

The Vodafone Test Your Team event saw 255 children under-18 take the test and found seven had HIV/AIDS.

"They seem to have a huge problem out there with AIDS and more than one-in-five people have it," said Bren. "There's a stigma about having it and people don't want to get tested, they would rather live in ignorance and suffer the consequences."

He added: "If you organise and AIDS testing then nobody will come but if you organise a football tournament then lots of people will come and then it's easier to get them tested.

"People with AIDS can still live a healthy life but they think it is a death sentence."

Godmanchester Rovers committee member Joanne Cattmull said she hopes the club will continue to send the old football to Africa.

"We had an accumulation of expired kits from several years of our teams outgrowing them and saw this as an ideal way to put them to good use," she said.

"We hope to continue our involvement with such a worthwhile cause - it is wonderful to think that Kick4Life can benefit from shirts that we no longer use."

INFORMATION: Kick4Life is currently looking for players for the next All Stars tour in May 2010. For more details visit www.kick4life.org