Development
Sport builds confidence, teamwork, health and engagement at school. For a child, play is development in its most enjoyable form.
Sport for development · Indo-Pacific & at home
Every kid deserves the chance to play.
Kicks for Kids is a 100% youth-led, volunteer-run Australian non-profit putting sporting equipment into the hands of disadvantaged children. More than 7,000 balls delivered across 34 countries, and counting.
Our promise
Every dollar becomes equipment.
Our volunteers cover the boring bits, so 100% of every donation is spent on sporting equipment for kids who would otherwise go without. No salaries, no office, no overheads.
How we work0+
Balls delivered to children in need
0
Countries reached, from Fiji to Afghanistan
0%
Of donations spent on sporting equipment
$0
Spent on overheads, salaries or administration
Tarin Kot, Afghanistan, 2013. Australian soldiers deliver the first 100 balls.
Where it began
It started with a letter to the Minister for Defence.
In 2013, nine-year-old Mac Millar couldn't understand why the kids he saw on TV in war-torn Afghanistan, the home country of his best friend and teammate Omar, didn't have soccer balls. So he wrote to the Australian Minister for Defence and asked for help.
The Australian Defence Force said yes. One hundred balls reached a school in Tarin Kot, the story ran on national television, and an idea took hold: sport is one of the simplest ways Australia can show up for kids everywhere.
Why sport
One ball. Three dividends.
A piece of sporting equipment is one of the cheapest, most durable development instruments on earth. Here's what it buys.
Resilience
Regular, inclusive sport weaves the everyday social fabric of clubs, teams and rituals that helps communities hold together when disruption hits.
Diplomacy
Grassroots sport is practical, people-to-people diplomacy. Every delivery strengthens Australia's friendships across the Indo-Pacific, one schoolyard at a time.
In the field
From Brisbane to the Pacific, by hand.
We deliver equipment ourselves and through trusted partners on the ground, most recently to schools and clubs across Fiji and Laos.
In good company
We've worked with some remarkable partners.
Australian Defence Force
Australian Federal Police
Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Rotary International
The Salvation Army
Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the UN
From the Ground Up
Our essays on sport, development and diplomacy.
Written by the team, argued over at length, and tested in the field. This is the thinking behind every ball we deliver.
Essay · Diplomacy
Soft power in a mesh bag: sporting equipment as Australian statecraft
From ping-pong diplomacy to DFAT's Sports Diplomacy Strategy 2032+: why the humble ball punches above its weight in foreign policy.
Essay · Brisbane 2032The green and gold decade belongs to the Pacific too
Brisbane 2032 is a once-in-a-generation platform. Its legacy should reach past the stadium gates, and past our shoreline.
Essay · DevelopmentWhat a soccer ball actually buys: play, capability and childhood
Seen through Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, a $15 ball is infrastructure for a childhood, and one of the cheapest development instruments on earth.
Partner with us
$5,000 puts 350 balls into the hands of 2,000 kids.
Across up to 20 schools and communities, delivered by volunteers and fully tax-deductible. Join the partners making it happen.