TennisIsLife
About TennisIsLife
The year the dream began

From a few used racquets to courts across Africa.

TennisIsLife is a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative that has been quietly shipping tennis equipment from the UK and Europe to children in Africa since 2018. This is the story, the model, and the people behind it.

Pillars
3
Trustees
6
Countries
3
Children at a tennis court — the audience TennisIsLife serves

Programme

Lagos · Dar es Salaam · Kigali

Chapter 01 · The dream

It started in 2018, with a few used racquets and a flight.

The dream started in 2018, when our founder collected used racquets from members of CASSAC LTC in Croydon and took them down to the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club — for the use of the wheelchair tennis team and others struggling to have decent equipment.

That single trip showed something simple: kit that’s collecting dust in a UK garage can completely change what’s possible on a court in Tanzania. Years later, we have built a small but steady programme around that idea.

Tennis court action

The platform of tennis can give a child structure, milestones and a route forward. Our job is just to put the racquet in their hand.

The trusteesFrom the founding deck

What we stand for

Vision, mission, scope.

Three statements that define every decision the trustees take.

Vision

Tennis as a vehicle for social inclusion.

Open the platform of tennis to children from less-privileged backgrounds — kids with little to no access to social-climbing opportunities — and use the sport to keep them engaged, focused and growing.

Mission

Get kids off the street, onto the court.

Use tennis to give children a structured, positive alternative to potential vices — paired with mentorship, friendly competition, and pathways to keep developing.

Scope

Africa, starting where the network already runs.

Nigeria, Tanzania and Rwanda are our launch geographies, building on relationships our trustees already have on the ground. More countries follow as the model proves out.

Where we are

A young programme, transparent about progress.

What's complete, what's in motion, and what's queued up next. We update this snapshot as the programme evolves.

Complete

Foundations laid

  • Web domain secured

    tennisislife.co.uk reserved and the public site brought live.

  • Trustees kick-off completed

    Six trustees onboarded across the UK, Switzerland, Tanzania and Nigeria.

  • First equipment crates shipped

    Racquets, bags and shoes from CASSAC LTC, Croydon and Zurich landed in Dar es Salaam.

In progress

Building the network

  • Venue partner sign-up

    Memoranda of understanding under way with DSM Gymkhana, Lagos Country Club, TPPA and Kigali partners.

  • Volunteers and coach enrolment

    Local coaches being onboarded with stipends across the launch geographies.

  • UK collection outreach

    Active drives running through South Croydon Sports Club and CASSAC.

Next

Coming up

  • Programme launch event

    Official launch once the venue and coach onboarding completes across all three countries.

  • First annual impact report

    Published transparently — sessions delivered, equipment shipped, costs and learnings.

  • Charity Commission review

    Evaluating formal charity registration as the programme scales.

How we are funded

A CSR vehicle, supported by friends of the business.

We are honest about the model — there is no large public fundraising machine behind us yet. The programme runs because a small group of people decided to pay for it themselves and roped in friends and partners along the way.

Funded by Planettalk Limited and Temitope Ayedun

Core programme costs — shipping, equipment refurbishment, coach stipends — are funded by Planettalk Limited and our founder, with support from friends of the business.

Trustees are not under any obligation to fund

Trustees support in any way they choose — advisory, materials, logistics, networks, administrative — but funding is not a precondition of joining the panel.

Volunteer coaches paid stipends

Local coaches in Lagos, Dar es Salaam and Kigali receive stipends so they can dedicate quality time to the programme without it costing them.

Programme-managed by Planettalk staff

Day-to-day programme management is run by a member of Planettalk's operations team, supported by volunteers and the trustee panel.

Trustees

The trustee panel.

Six people across three continents, with deep tennis and business networks.

  • Temitope Ayedun

    Founding Trustee · MD/CEO, Planettalk Limited

    London, UK

    Founder of TennisIsLife and managing director of Planettalk Limited. Leads strategy, fundraising and overall direction of the charity.

  • Tobias Drogseth

    Trustee · Business Development & Investor

    Zurich, Switzerland

    Business development professional, start-up investor and avid tennis player. Drives equipment collection drives across continental Europe — over thirty racquets, bags and shoes secured in Zurich alone.

  • Inger Njau

    Trustee · IT Professional

    Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    IT professional and long-term Captain at DSM Gymkhana Club. Champions developmental tennis for the disabled and young people, and coordinates the Dar es Salaam programme.

  • Segun Aluko

    Trustee · Marketing & Education Investor

    Lagos, Nigeria

    Marketing professional and education investor. President of the Tennis Players Parents Association (TPPA) in Nigeria and former Tennis Captain at the Lagos Country Club.

  • Jim Huggins

    Trustee · Entrepreneur & Storage Partner

    Croydon, UK

    Entrepreneur and Chairman of the South Croydon Sports Club Tennis Section. Provides UK storage and logistics support for shipping equipment to our African partners.

  • Osasu Osemwota

    Programme Manager · Operations, Planettalk Limited

    London, UK

    Operations Manager at Planettalk Limited, doubling as programme manager for the charity. Coordinates collections, shipping, partner relationships and on-the-ground reporting.

Join us

Bring your skills, your network, or your kit.

Whether you can spare a racquet, run a UK collection drive, coach an hour a week, or open doors with logistics partners — we will find the right fit.