Afya - Contact Us

Alex's Story

While growing up I have visited many different places. Places with vastly different cultures, languages, and ways of life. There is one thing that I was able to connect to, a thing that some identify as a sport or a hobby, or a thing that some people may identify as a way of life, soccer. An estimated 3.5 billion people in the world have an interest in soccer, either playing it or watching it. In December of 2008, my family and I took a trip to Africa, to visit South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia. As soon as we landed and left Cape Town International Airport, we saw the highway lined with shantytowns. Homes built of thin scraps of metal, housing up to ten people at once. Almost as soon as I saw the impoverished children, I also saw their major escape from it all, soccer. Kids were playing soccer on the dirt fields to the side of the road, using tires for goals and a ball made out of dirt worn torn up T-Shirts, and I immediately knew it should be better. Throughout my trip around Southern Africa I saw much of the same problems and I decided I needed to do what I could to help. Once I got home I decided to find a way to help send used sports equipment to Africa. To a multicultural world I can contribute support to children in need in Africa, to let them live the soccer player’s way of life the way it should be lived.
After looking around my home, I realized I had enough soccer equipment to provide for a small village, and I just imagined what a whole community could provide. First I got in touch with the local youth soccer commissioner, to set up donation boxes at local youth soccer games. This weekend is the first weekend for donations, and I plan not to stop there. I am currently in the early stages of the whole procedure, but can’t wait to be finished and have children playing soccer the way they deserve to. I am very excited to have discovered Afya, a charity which is going to send all the equipment to communities in Haiti.
I think the kids in need would be grateful when they receive the equipment, and I will be happy for them too. I like to think that I can help give kids in need hope, that they will become the next famous soccer player, and that they won’t believe the world revolves around wars and drugs. I hope I will contribute hope and strength, to the impoverished children in this multicultural world.

AFYA CLUBS

The Starting Line

So you’re thinking of creating an Afya Club. Or maybe you want to join one. Either way, you’ve got questions. Good. We have answers.

Let’s start at the beginning. (Why? Because starting at the end will make it too short!)

1. What is an Afya Club?

It’s a way of helping people who need help. That’s what Afya does. It collects stuff—mostly medical and other health supplies, but other things too (as you’ll find out). Where do these things come from? They are given away—donated—by people, businesses, and hospitals that don’t need it anymore. It goes from them to Afya’s warehouse in Yonkers, New York, where Afya makes sure it’s OK to be used. It gets sorted, organized, and put on a shelf. But it doesn’t stay there long. Soon it will be packed into a huge container with tons—really, tons—of things that will make people’s lives better, simple things like beds and linens for hospitals, fancy equipment for doctors to use, even soccer balls for the children of patients trying to get well.

In the last year and a half, Afya has shipped 21 containers—more than one a month!—crammed with 300 tons of valuable items that would have otherwise been discarded.

Who are these people? Where does Afya send these supplies? Afya responds to direct requests from health care centers in places less fortunate than most places in the United States—mainly countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

If you and your friends want to help Afya fulfill its mission, do some good, and get some great experience, starting an Afya Club is the way to go. It’s not hard.

2. What does an Afya Club do?

First of all, your Club can do whatever you want. You get to define and shape it. After all, it’s your Club, your ideas, your time and energy. That said, there are three basic ways to pitch in:

a) You can raise money to help pay for shipping supplies overseas.
b) You can collect useful items, especially things Afya is not likely to get from other sources, like hospitals. (And remember, everything you salvage that gets sent overseas is something that won’t get thrown out and be buried in a landfill here.)
c) If you live near our warehouse, you can come in and lend a hand (or two) by sorting or packing or who knows what. There’s plenty to do. And nice people to do it with.

3. How many people does it take to make a Club?

As few as one. As many as...many. You can do it yourself. Or work with your school. Or join forces with some other group you belong to. Or connect with other kids through Facebook. Some Clubs have been started by kids working on their Bar Mitzvah project. Others got involved through a school project. Afya Clubs have been started by students in middle school, high school, and college. Here’s what several Clubs are doing now.

4. OK, I’m ready. What do I do now?

Fill out the form on this page to get an Afya Club Kit. Read it. Think about what you want to do. Then do it. We’ll put you in touch with other Afya Club leaders, so you can learn from each other’s experiences. And if you have more questions, ask us. Like you, we’re here to help.

aising awareness and making progress towards “good health through giving”

Please complete this form and click submit. Please include founders name, your school or community's name, founders age, email address and phone number, and your faculty advisor's name (if applicable). We will send you a complete “Afya Club Kit” to help you organize your group.

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