First days of placement

For the first full day of placement, I accompanied Ian and Emily to their site at Ngombe. Most of the morning was spent walking around the area and visiting a few of the different schools where the guys will be taking sessions. I was surprised at first by how friendly and open people were, but writing this at the end of the week I now realise it is the Zambian way. The sense of community in Ngombe there is hard to match. While the students coach on the community fields, parents and siblings can be found sitting around the sidelines just metres from their homes and might even invite you in for some Nshima. Children of all ages come to watch or join in with the games.

The girls netball team that Emily is coaching are really eager to invite you into their fold and were soon teaching us some Zambian songs and dances. It’s safe to say I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. Then, as one of the girls is called Tina (like Tina Turner!), we taught them the chrous of ‘Simply the Best’ which they picked up a lot quicker than we picked up the dancing.

My next visit was to Fountain of Hope, a centre for children who have found themselves living on the street. The peer leaders, Stephen and Isaac, are both former street children themselves and you can tell that they’re passionate about the work they do at Fountain.

While the guys coached their afternoon sessions on the field, I played with some of the younger boys who had come along to watch. After a kick about with a football, a game of tag and even a couple of slightly wobbly cartwheels, we sat down to draw in the notebook I’d brought with me. Stephen is an older boy who lives with his aunt since he lost both his parents, but comes to Fountain every day as he doesn’t like it at home. He told me that he wants to be an accountant when he grows up to “follow in his father’s footsteps”.

This is a job which wouldn’t be out of reach for most people in the UK if they put their mind to it, but these kids have the odds stacked against them simple because of the circumstances they were born into. When it got to the end of the session, I found it hard to say goodbye to the group, so I can’t imagine how hard it will be after 6 weeks – especially for the guys who are working so closely with their teams.

For me as media volunteer, it’s going to be a different experience every day for the next week as I visit the rest of the placements while the coaching students have a more structured routine. One of the upsides of this is that I get the opportunity to visit each placement numerous times and can also get involved with projects like GOALS (girls empowerment), community forums and the library scheme.