Students and staff provide a sporting chance for Zambia kids
University team lending a hand
Staff and students from Stirling University are working on a project to help people in the African state of Zambia.
They have been putting on PE lessons, community sports programmes and health awareness workshops in some of the most deprived areas of the country’s capital Lusaka.
Students Elliott Rousen, Alicia Brown and Kenneth Matheson have just returned after carrying out six weeks of volunteer work, while recent graduate Murray Pollock and Amy Beattie, Stirling’s student sport experience officer, have just arrived in the city.
The Volunteer Zambia programme is coordinated by the Wallace Group, a partnership created in 2006 by several leading UK universities to support sports development for young people in the country.
Each summer, the universities send students and staff members to Lusaka for six weeks, between May and September, where they deliver programmes to more than 160,000 children each week.
Elliott, a fourth-year sports studies student who worked on football coaching sessions, said: “It was amazing to meet people from all over the UK, and the wider world, and to spend so much time with similar people, with similar goals and ambitions, in Zambia. I really enjoyed experiencing Zambian culture and it was very rewarding to use my personal skills to help benefit children in a sporting capacity. The children, the staff at the schools, and the people appreciated the work we were doing out there.
“It proved to me that we can make a difference, no matter how big or small. We can have a huge impact on people’s lives and it doesn’t take much.”
Third-year Kenneth, also studying sports studies, taught basketball and netball to children.
He said: “The children have benefitted both in skill and emotional development. I noticed a great improvement in the young students who routinely attended the training sessions during our time there. I am very confident that their rate of improvement will be sustained with continued coaching.
“I believe the greatest benefit of this experience, for me, was the broadening of my perspective. Through seeing the great difference in culture, it has made me a more understanding and socially-aware individual.”
Amy Beattie added: “It is a great experience for the children, getting involved in sport while learning about different cultures.
“It also gives our students the opportunity to experience different cultures, while developing their coaching skills in a challenging environment.”
The process for selecting students to participate in the programme involves an initial application and then a follow-up interview.