THE unmistakable blue and white colours of Hartlepool United are being sported by dozens of deprived youngsters living in Tanzania.

Student Tom Buller volunteered to spend ten weeks in two villages in the East African country this summer for a project during his gap year.

His friend and dedicated Pools fan Mike Bell suggested he contact the football club to see if he could take any spare kits with him to the villages where football forms an important part of community life.

The club pulled together full kits for Mr Buller to take on his travels with plenty of children now becoming adopted Pools fans.

The law student visited Ikaning’ombe in central Tanzania and said: “Football was enormously popular there, games would take place daily between local teams and would always attract a good crowd.

“I distributed some of the Hartlepool kits to the local youth team there and they are now using it as their new home colours and the village chairman even re-named the team after me.

“There was enough kit to give some to other youngsters in the village and it’s difficult to articulate their gratitude in words – suffice to say, I didn’t see a single one of them take off their Pools kit for the entire week, they just couldn’t believe it.”

Mr Buller also visited Nyamweizi, where residents pay tax for a hut where games from English divisions are shown.