The Mathare Youth Sports Association project - started in 1987 to give children of the Mathare slums in Nairobi, Kenya, a chance to play football - now has 14,000 players in 1,008 teams.

The Mathare area - home to 700,000 people - is one of Africa's largest and poorest slums. It has many problems with drugs, prostitution, AIDS and gang violence - and is prone to disease brought on by polluted water supplies and by waste in the streets. So, as at Sadili Oval, the young people become involved in helping themselves and others as well as playing sport.

In order to join the club the young people either have to coach younger children in football, or take part in environmental clean-ups. Since 1988, 25-30 teams of players have been cleaning up the slums on Saturdays, borrowing wheelbarrows, rakes and spades from the municipal council. This helps build good relations between the children and the rest of their communities. And it earns them points towards their ranking in the football leagues.

The association has developed an HIV programme, raising awareness among young people about the disease that is ravaging Kenya. It works to feed, care for, and assist the release of, children in jail. It provides some school scholarships. And it gives training in photography, film and journalism so that the children, many of whom live in slums, can document and find pride in the stories of their lives.

All this means that the association has a pretty great reputation - and, more importantly, so do its members. They are known as 'the good kids', and they really do look as if they are kicking their way out of disease and hardship towards a better future.