Last weekend was one that saw the Academy involved in many activities including two football matched over the weekend for the Amateur team I coach, and one each for the U14, Girls and U17 teams. Due to the fact that the U14 and U17 coaches are part of the U17 and Amateur teams respectively our teams and the staff were stretched to their limits, with inevitable delays causing a little disruption to the various teams’ scheduling.
It was however great to see the commitment put into the games by the boys and girls, especially the Amateurs who played two away games within less than 24 hours rest in between the two.
Whilst the fitness and discipline of the boys themselves is bettering by the week, I cannot say the same with regards the situation of the Academy, which continues to suffer from the financial difficulties all small NGOs seem to face.
Project proposals are drafted, reviewed and submitted on a very regular basis I must admit, but hardly any of them actually tackle the very core aspect of BSA’s activities … the sports academy!
The focus has been mainly on trying to establish BSA as a leading youth development through sports institution in Zambia, and to their credit, they have a done a relatively good job to come this far in just 5 years. However, whilst efforts have been channelled to secure a more National and even international standing in this domain, it has left unfortunate gaps in the running of the organisation at the core level, whereby the boys and girls attending the academy’s various training grounds have to dribble the balls around construction debris, peeping boulders from beneath the dry, hard dirt grounds, at times even barefoot.
Truth be told the situation with regard to equipment isn’t as bad as I had feared, due to past contributions from donors, sponsors and the children’s own merits, who after having participated and competed successfully in various Europe-based tournaments came away with either football tops or boots.
The local community has also provided its support, albeit meagre.The main difficulty I find in digesting the situation the teams face on a weekly basis, is the lack of financing league game costs. These include transport to away games, food and payment of the referee when playing home. The costs range from a mere €12 for the referee when playing home games to a maximum of €60 for away games which covers transport (in a 12-seater minibus) and some food for those that wouldn’t have managed to eat before heading out for the game – as most do!It has been cause for much frustration and discussions between myself and the Academy’s staff.
I have proposed to have a look at the budget allocation and even accounts to try and fathom a way out of this situation, if indeed there is. But my appeals have fallen on deaf ears as if wanting to hide dark secrets from prying eyes.Thankfully, due to the generosity of friends and family, I have managed to fund raise enough money to cover the transport costs for the Amateur team whilst I am here, but this is only the tip of the iceberg!
The success of the organisation to deliver youth education through the programmes it promotes, is taking a bit of a beating due to the way both human and financial resources are being used. It is needless to say that human resources are very limited and increasingly so at the moment as the Founder has moved to England to complete a Masters in Sports Management and the Director is involved in a Social Work Degree at the University of Zambia.
Whilst this will undoubtedly strengthen the reputation and quality of the management and direction of the organisation in the long-run, currently, in present day Lusaka, I feel that the academy is suffering from the loss of man-power to support the children who are working so hard to reach their own goals in life, without the appropriate support.
I have made a promise to the boys in the team I am coaching that as long as I am involved with the Academy, nothing will fail them. However, this has also led me to assess the real impact of such short-term commitments, when it is quite reasonable to think that following my departure, financing will seize to exist as before and the team will fall back into the difficulties it did beforehand, nullifying the efforts they would have put into their training and stall the progression the team and the Academy has done so hard to achieve so far.
It is the perennial problem with such undertakings when financial support is limited to projects that, I order to help the global development of the organisation, tend to fail the very same at the grass roots.I have now been here for 6 weeks. I can see that on the pitch, the boys and girls who come under my supervision during training and at match games, they are responding: performance is improving. They have adapted not only their training and match attitudes, but the fighting spirit I try to instil in them - to overcome not only the inevitable obstacles confronted during the preparation of the games, as well as on match day itself – but also those barriers that invite themselves without fore warning to spoil the party at the end of the day.
They have become more respecting of opponents and the people trying to assist them; They have become more determined to succeed, seeking solutions to problems rather than complaining about restrictions; The team spirit I see with these guys is greater than any I myself can say I had when playing football myself!
So if this doesn’t deserve my full commitment, on and off the pitch I don’t know what does.
Even if I will only be here for another 6 weeks, I am adamant to show these kids that I am not the random muzungu who comes along waves his hands and screams out loud professing from the pulpits like the many church preachers dressed in rich garments, pointing fingers at culpable sinners whilst hunkering greedily over their meagre possessions, fattening themselves whilst their congregations go hungry, in the name of what?
The cogs are all tightly interlinked, without the Academy, project proposals will not be accepted, without which there is no possibility for the organisation to provide the children with educational opportunities and necessary support staff to mentor the young. The success of the former is crucial for the delivery of the latter, somehow though the mathematics is not working out, and at times I find myself wandering into oblivion, struggling with the calculations to find the right fix to this equation!
