Visit the Mirror website (link below) for news, photos and video from our recent Van Dash around all 20 top flight football clubs to collect signed shirts for auction. It was a huge success!

Score Ethiopia a football based fundraising initiative aimed at providing facilities in Ethiopia set up by \'No Fuss\' shampoo, Wash & Go its continuing it\'s work after successful launch year.

And the original \'2-in-1\' favourite will be asking young footy fanatics across Hull to lend a helping hand or two by designing a unique football kit for their school team to be exchanged with one designed by a school in Ethiopia. The best kits will be manufactured and presented as part of an international level initiative.

The campaign builds on Wash & Go\'s rich football heritage and was conceived when UK based volunteer, Mairead MacBeath, won a full adult Sunday league team kit in a competition. On witnessing Ethiopians passion for football first hand during her time there, she decided to send the kit to the town of Lalibela, where she had recently been working. The gesture has now accelerated into a full blown charitable campaign.

Wash & Go has teamed up with education focussed charity Link Ethiopia, enrolling England footy legend John Barnes along the way, the campaign is set to deliver a whole range of facilities into Lalibela including a pitch, spectator seating, changing/showering facilities and amenities to the Gondar region of Ethiopia. Barnes, who previously moonlighted in BBC 1\'s \'Strictly Come Dancing\' is one of England\'s best loved footballers and is delighted to be spearheading the project:

\"Spending almost two decades as a professional footballer has allowed me to travel to all corners of the globe. Rarely have I witnessed such passion for the \'Beautiful Game\' as I did in Ethiopia. The country truly has a footy mad culture. Score Ethiopia is a superb way to use football to deliver much needed basic facilities to the Gondar region.\"

And it all kicks off with an awareness raising initiative on these shores, by inviting primary schools nationwide to take part in a kit exchange.

Wash & Go\'s Alex Daskalopoulos explains: \"Ethiopia is still one of the world\'s five poorest countries. Yet even in the face of adversity, one passion that its people share is football. \"

\"So, we\'re asking kids across England to combine their love of the beautiful game with a splash of flair and imagination by designing a football kit for a school in Ethiopia. In the meantime, kids of the same age in Ethiopia will be doing exactly the same thing.\"

\"Children in this country still have a need for new equipment. Designing a kit puts both UK and Ethiopian schools on a level playing field as a gift exchanged between communities at different ends of the world. It will also provide an education and understanding between the children of each country as schools in both countries will receive education packs giving an introduction to culture, ethos and community living.\"

Winning schools will be treated to a visit by their Ethiopian counterparts and John Barnes to exchange the two kits. In the meantime, they can get involved with a whole host of fun and quirky fundraising ideas from football fun days to sponsored penalty shoot-outs. You could even start your own school link with Ethiopia.

Any schools who haven\'t been contacted but wish to take part in the initiative should contact the Score Ethiopia hotline on 0161 828 5400.

For further information please contact:

Matt Royle, Tom Cummings or Sarah Muckle at Powell Communications

Link Ethiopia supports education in Ethiopia and fosters links between schools in Ethiopia and the UK at all educational levels.

Link Ethiopia funds and manages projects in Ethiopian schools to provide them with basic facilities and improved quality of teaching.

School links between Ethiopia and the UK are an opportunity to increase cultural understanding and give pupils a wider view of the world in which they live.

Since kicking off the campaign back in September, the \'gospel\' of Score Ethiopia, with a little help from England legend and footy megastar John Barnes, has been delivered far and wide! The team has been awash with enquiries from primary school teachers through to Ethiopian dignitaries all aspiring to get involved.

So far, we estimate our kit design and exchange competition has reached a staggering 21,000 UK pupils, not to mention the huge number of Ethiopian pupils who are taking part too! Our Ethiopian information packs have clearly been a \'hit\' with pupils. \"The kids have relished the opportunity to embrace and learn about the Ethiopian culture,\" said one teacher. \"It\'s new, different and really broadened their horizons.\" We also ensured the \'corridors of power\' knew all about the campaign too, with a mail drop to MP\'s and other influencers across the country. And, as it\'s an initiative based around the love of the \'beautiful game\' we announced it to all football league clubs, many of whom have featured campaign details in their matchday magazines.

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Beginning with schools in Portsmouth, the kit design competition took in Bristol, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and Sunderland. Pupils at schools right across each and every one of these regions have now designed top draw football kits. And, linking up with each area\'s regional newspaper, we showcased the designs in the sports pages and asked readers to vote on the most stylish jersey to be worthy of being made into a full strip. Winners so far are:

Portsmouth - Riley Regan of Newtown Primary
Bristol - Lauren Codd of St. Matthias & Dr Bells CE VA Primary School
North East - Luke Stevenson of Lambton Primary School

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And, with two regions, Birmingham and Sheffield, still to be decided, we\'ll have more top draw designs to bring you soon!

Any schools who haven\'t been contacted but wish to take part in the initiative should contact the Score Ethiopia hotline on 0161 828 5400 or visit http://www.linkethiopia.org/score/

Call our Campaign Co-ordinator, Tom Cummings, on 0161 828 5400 or get in touch by email at Tom.Cummings@powell-pr.co.ukif you have any enquiries.

Notes to editors:Link Ethiopia supports education in Ethiopia and fosters links between schools in Ethiopia and the UK at all educational levels. Link Ethiopia funds and manages projects in Ethiopian schools to provide them with basic facilities and improved quality of teaching. School links between Ethiopia and the UK are an opportunity to increase cultural understanding and give pupils a wider view of the world in which they live.