Our story
It started with a letter.
Before the foundation, the partners and the 34 countries, there was a nine-year-old with a question: why don't those kids have a ball?
Mac, aged nine, in his Brisbane City FC days, where the whole thing began.
Brisbane, 2013
A best friend named Omar.
Mac Millar's best friend and Brisbane City FC teammate, Omar, had come to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan. Watching the news one night, Mac saw children in Omar's home country living through war, and couldn't understand why none of them had soccer balls.
Most adults would have explained it away. Mac wrote a letter to the Australian Minister for Defence instead, asking whether Australian soldiers could help him get balls to kids in Afghanistan. Then he raised the money to buy them.
Tarin Kot, Afghanistan, 2013. The Australian Defence Force delivers Mac's 100 balls.
Tarin Kot, Afghanistan
The Defence Force said yes.
The Australian Defence Force arranged for troops to deliver 100 soccer balls to children at a school in war-torn Tarin Kot. The story ran nationally on Channel 9's Today Show. A nine-year-old had turned an act of friendship into an act of diplomacy.
Almost a decade later, one of the soldiers involved sought Mac out to tell him what that day had meant to the troops on the ground.
“Our whole team got a break from the hectic work over there to just help the community. It was received like you wouldn't believe... that day was the highlight of my career.
2013–2017 · Play it Forward
One boy, a Rotary network, and thousands of balls.
Under its original name, Football. Play it Forward, the project grew far beyond one delivery. Working through Rotary clubs, the Australian Federal Police, ambassadors and volunteers, balls reached children in Uganda, Cambodia, Nepal, the Solomon Islands, Zimbabwe, Syria, Gaza and even North Korea.
Along the way Mac spoke at a TEDx event in Shanghai, addressed the Rotary World Peace Conference in California, and learned the lesson that still shapes us: you don't need to be big to make a difference; you need partners who are already there.
Papua New Guinea, 2014. The Australian Federal Police deliver balls during peacekeeping duties.
Fiji, 2025. The team's first delivery trip together.
2024 · The next chapter
One boy's project becomes a team of ten.
In 2024 the project Mac started as a nine-year-old grew into the Kicks for Kids Foundation: a structured, volunteer-run team of ten with a treasurer, a partnerships lead, a strategy team and the same operating promise as always. Every dollar donated becomes sporting equipment.
Within a year the team had upgraded from a garage to a dedicated storage facility, run collection drives across Brisbane clubs and schools, and delivered equipment on the ground in Fiji and Laos.
The journey
From one letter to 34 countries.
The letter
Nine-year-old Mac writes to the Minister for Defence. The ADF delivers 100 balls to a school in Tarin Kot, Afghanistan. Channel 9's Today Show tells the story to the nation.
Play it Forward goes global
Thousands of balls travel through Rotary clubs, the AFP and diplomatic partners to Uganda, Cambodia, Nepal, the Solomon Islands, Zimbabwe, Syria, Gaza and North Korea. Mac speaks at TEDx Shanghai and the Rotary World Peace Conference in California.
The team grows
What began as one boy posting soccer balls becomes the Kicks for Kids Foundation: a volunteer team of ten university mates, a formal structure, and the same 100%-to-equipment promise.
Back in the field
Delivery trips to Fiji and Laos. A dedicated storage facility replaces the garage. Collection bins roll out across Brisbane clubs, schools and corporate offices, and the Peace Cup kicks off with Rohingya United.
7,000+ balls. 34 countries.
KFK pairs on-the-ground delivery with a growing voice on sports diplomacy, aligned to DFAT's Sports Diplomacy Strategy 2032+ and the road to Brisbane 2032.
Our mission
Kids should worry about losing the ball, not their home.
We enable disadvantaged children and communities, at home and across the Indo-Pacific, to access the developmental benefits of sport through the donation of sporting goods.
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Empower
Equip local schools and organisations so disadvantaged children can participate in sport.
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Strengthen
Give communities the tools and support to run sustainable youth sport programs of their own.
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Connect
Use sport as people-to-people diplomacy, building goodwill with Australia's regional neighbours.
Be part of the next chapter
The letter was just the beginning.
Partner with us, run an equipment drive, or make a tax-deductible donation, and put more kids on the pitch.