Zambia Football and Community Project

Join the Zambia Football and Community Project and help to make a huge difference to the lives of many young children in this incredible corner of Africa. Your volunteer efforts will help to promote valuable lessons and life-skills and will also give some children the opportunity to train and play football at a much higher level.

Based in the town of Livingstone, only a few miles from the stunning Victoria Falls, you will play an important role in coaching football to the many enthusiastic young footballers whom have not had many chances to play with a real ball, let alone to receive structured football coaching. In addition, you will also be making valuable contributions in local community projects, reinforcing your volunteer efforts on a wider community basis. By the end of your placement, you will have made a difference to the lives of many people and given so much back in this needy, yet beautiful, part of Africa.

Project Age Limit
Minimum 18 years, maximum decided on potential participants’ health Project Requirements: This programme requires all participants to be active, so volunteers need to ensure they feel fit and able to join a project of this nature.

Football Volunteer Programme
This is a really unique football-coaching project, with genuine ambitions to promote football amongst local children and use it as a means to offer further opportunities in life. The long-term aims are to promote the most talented players through the local ranks, hopefully giving them the opportunity to qualify for football scholarships or even professional contracts. Although this is long-term and ambitious, it is a realistic goal considering the wealth of talent in Livingstone and the sheer number of children playing football.

Volunteer Role
Working with a number of schools and orphanages in central Livingstone, you will focus on coaching football to children during school and out of school hours. Schools in Livingstone operate on a “Hot-Seating system”, where children take it in turns to attend school. Some schools have up to 3 different sessions a day, meaning that two thirds of children are not at school at any one time. Because of this, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of enthusiastic children looking for something to do to fill their free time.

Working with our local coordinator, an FA accredited football coach; you will be trained to the standard of an FA Level 1 coach.

With a sound knowledge of basic drills and lesson plans, you will then be allocated a school, in which you will coordinate the football training sessions on the school fields.

You will be involved with the following activities:

Football Academy
The early stages of the programme are to provide as much coaching as possible. This allows a wider range of children to benefit from your volunteer efforts. However, over a period of time, certain players will emerge as being the most talented in their school or club. It will be your responsibility to identify these players and select them to attend our Football Academy, which is the second stage of the programme.

The Academy is to offer exclusive/further coaching to young players with potential, so that they can develop their skills even further. You can offer valuable advice and skill, to help these players become more skillful and more valuable team members.

By reinforcing the importance of hard work and team spirit, you will help them to become both better players and members of the community. Over the years, these top-performing players will be developed and nurtured, hopefully to the extent that they will be good enough to apply for football scholarships, trials with professional teams and other positions within the sport. In most cases, this academy will be the child’s best opportunity to access higher education and the possibility of a professional sporting career.

Project Highlights

Schools and Sports Clubs
Schools and Sports Clubs in Livingstone cope with a great lack of funds, and as a result, there are very few sports coaches and a limited supply of sports equipment.

Despite this lack, the majority of children love sports and football is the undoubted favorite.

Equipment Donations
This sports volunteer project is like many other charitable organisations and therefore needs donations each year for sustainable development. Although your programme does include a donation to the project, all volunteers are encouraged to bring with them any further equipment that may benefit the project. This is not compulsory and your donation, if you make one, does not have to be brand new.

This can include:

Community Volunteer Projects
You have the opportunity to combine sports coaching with a variety of projects in the local community. This allows you to make a difference to the community in a variety of different ways, not in just sport. Your project coordinator will make a schedule for you corresponding with your preferences. You can choose between the following projects:

1) LISCA Orphanage/Linda Community Centre
The orphanage, run by LISCA (Livingstone Street Kids Community Association), is a place that will warm your heart. Not only is it home to 20 boys who have lost their parents to AIDS, it also serves as a community centre for dozens of disadvantaged children in the neighbourhood. Volunteers have the chance to make a real impact on the lives of these children and to assist with their learning experience. Whether it is by organising simple classes, drawing pictures, playing sports, or simply singing songs, the attention you give to these children is of invaluable importance to them.

2) Build and Paint Schools
Schools in Livingstone deal with a great shortage of classrooms and as a result, most children do not receive the full day of class they need. With the help and guidance of professional builders, we are building new classrooms for as many schools as possible. As a volunteer, you will help with mixing cement, laying bricks, laying floors, plastering walls, and painting. It is hard, but highly rewarding work!

3) Elephant Pepper Project
The Elephant Pepper Development Trust is an organisation that aims to reduce the conflict between farmers and elephants. Particularly in the dry season, elephants raid people’s crops, which often cause farmers to lose their whole years income in one night. The elephants are often shot as a result. To save the lives of both people and elephants, the Elephant Pepper Trust has developed ways to use chilli-peppers to keep elephants away from people’s land, as the animals don’t like the taste and smell of chilli. The project gives farmers free seedlings and explains to them how to use the peppers. Elephant Pepper then buys the surplus of the chilli peppers back from the farmers, which gives the farmers a good extra income. As a volunteer, you will be involved in the project by helping build green houses for the seedlings, setting up demonstration sites around town, and building shops where women can come and sell their peppers.

Project Accommodation
You will stay in our volunteer house, which is a simple yet comfortable house, staffed with a cook and laundry/cleaning ladies. The house has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living/dining area, and kitchen. The house also has a large garden, satellite TV, and a safe for your valuables. All bedding is provided, so you will not need to bring a sleeping bag with you. All meals, laundry and transportation to and from your projects and tourist activities will be provided and organized by your volunteer coordinator.

We find that volunteers living together and working closely together with their volunteer coordinators is the surest way of guaranteeing their safety and being able to attend to their most pressing needs. For this reason we expect all volunteers to stay only in the accommodation provided for them and do not allow volunteers to spend nights away in the town or nearby villages, unless they are away on pre-arranged sightseeing excursions.

Project Meals
You will be provided with three meals a day. Breakfast is on a self-service basis and usually consists of cereals/porridge, toast, tea and coffee. Lunch and dinner are full meals, and will be cooked for you by one of our chefs at your volunteer house.

Note: Sometimes on weekends you will need to cook your own meals with ingredients that will be provided. Weekends are usually good times for tourist activities and exploring the surrounding area, so that is the time that a lot of volunteers are out and about anyway.

Orientation
Upon arrival in Livingstone all volunteers are involved in comprehensive 3-day orientation program, which is included in your fee. This is facilitated by your project volunteer coordinator and entails:

Project Support
Throughout your stay you will have the support and guidance of experienced field-workers and coordinators, whom will provide you with competent 24-hour support and assistance.

In addition to this, you will be provided with a 24-hour emergency contact number for Real Gap in the UK, so you can speak with one of our advisers in the unlikely event of an emergency.