Happy New Year - Every little thing counts

Childhood is a massive part of a person's life and what happens during it plays an enormous part in a person growing up and becoming who they are in adult life. What is most important during that time is love from a carer or parent and the nature of it. A child is very vulnerable and dependant upon this love and the adult the child becomes is shaped by it. Many of us have issues that stem back to our childhood that cause us pain or difficulties later in life and it may be that some parts of our are lives are devoted to reconciling these, especially if ours parents and family are still alive. Many of us are equipped, through our loving formative years, of feelings of self-esteem that enable us to be ourselves in the world and play a part in it. If these years are disrupted or the love distorted, between carer and child, it's consequences can be harmful. If for whatever reason, a child loses their parents or primary carer, a hole is left.

When I first visited Zambia I had recently been reconciled with my parents after being estranged from them for a number of years. There were issues between us that had been faced up to and now we continue to develop our relationship in a positive way. I was very thankful at the time that my parents were still alive to enable me to do this. I grew up in a family that provided fostering care for children who for one reason or another faced challenges in their lives, the causes of which were not their responsibilities. In the UK, where 68 840 children are in care, there are problems in the adoptive system and in the care of the most vulnerable children in our society and there are many people working to alleviate these and endeavour to provide care and love for them. Although the odds appear stacked against them, in any society, every child that has to go into care is important and every little thing counts.



Breakfast at Packachele Primary School

There are up to 760 000 orphans between the ages of 0-17, due to Aids, living in Zambia. 170 000 of these carry HIV. These make up half of the orphan population in the country where 1.4 million children have lost both or one paren for one reason or another. For any child's future, in any country, to be in jeopardy is tragic but in Zambia the consequences of losing a parent are very much a matter of life or death. Not only the AIDS epidemic and it's repercussions, but also the overwelming poverty, mean that vulnerable children have very little chance. These children have lost one or both of the most important people in their lives, often at an age where understanding is difficult and the event most damaging. There is no government network of support for them and the burden on extended family members to care for these children is overwelming. They need love and food. When a mother leaves her child at one of the city rubbish dumps, it is not out of neglect or abandonment but out of love. They know that he or she will be found.



Parental responsibilies

And sometimes chances come along. I worked in two schools in Zambia. The first of these was a school for orphans and those with HIV. It was a deeply personal experience but what I felt most was the overwelming joy on the faces of the 150 pupils, not only at playtime, but in the classroom too. The school was a refuge from without. Outside the school was a world that included neglect, hunger, physical and sexual abuse. Inside the school was love, hope, friendship, food twice a day and often a release from otherwise tragic circumstances. These children were being equipped with the tools they needed to face their lives. They are the lucky ones. The majority of the orphans in Zambia don't get the chance to go to schools such as these because there aren't enough.



Kids of gthe Dynamic Stars Academy

Elsewhere, vulnerable children get lost. Child abuse, both sexual and physical, forced marraiges, child labour and corporal punishment are widespread in Zambia and because of the challenges the country faces, the infrastructure, and skills required to start tackling the problems and protecting vulnerable children are not in place. There is no money to put them in place either. Many Zambians and people from the UK and elsewhere in the world, are trying very hard and successfully to change this in many small ways. Healthcare professionals, teachers and parents are being trained in abuse recognition as are children in what is acceptable behaviour in the home or in society. Tribal leaders and politicians want to know how they can help. The people of Zambia want, ask for and sometimes need help to face these challenges.

For the children who are lost and do not go to school, there are the football pitches. This is often their chance in a country with very few compared with the UK. At the Dynamic Stars Academy, the children are safe from harm. They get fed, they get a limited education, perhaps enough to survive, and they get hope. They get to play football with a real ball and wear a football shirt. They get fun and they get friendship. for some, it will be a losing battle but for others it could be the most important thing in their future lives. The joy and the self esteem they get is amazing.

Without schooling, a vulnerable child is at more risk. Without organisations like the Dynamic Stars Academy, the vulnerability increases more. The costs of this vulnerability in the lives of the young people is Zambia is devastating and that is something i've witnessed. If not early marraige, if not forced labour, then many of the lost orphans, as young as six years old, slip away to live in the sewers of the city at night and a life on the streets by day, addicted to inhaling a mixture of avation fuel and glue, begging for food and supplementing it by scouring the cities rubbish dumps. Few escape this from this fate and most die before adulthood. The football academies and the people who run them are often a child's role model, one that many have lost through the death of a parent.




Children in Chainda

Sometimes I struggle to see how all this helps, in a country far removed from ours and with a culture so vastly different, especially on social and personal levels. I face my own challenges and make mistakes. I try and concentrate on the positives though. The first set of goal nets on the pitch at Chainda compound was one such occasion. I sometimes think about the children nearer to me in this country that need love and support, of which, like those I grew up with, there are too many. My chance came in Zambia though, at a certain point in my life, and I took it. I was filled with inspiration by the people I met and talked to who lived there working towards protecting children, and by the fun the children themselves had. The joy I received in the country from the people and children I met, I wanted to return and share, and to feel inspired to do something in life is, in itself, an important thing.

As we go into the new year, I am still waiting to hear from the UK Customs and Revenue, and hopefully the allocation of a Gift Aid number. From there I hope to start some fundraising events for Goal Zambia. I hope to raise some more money and plan to revisit the country later this year. I hope to have enough money to make a small difference in some of the areas that Goal Zambia hopes to contribute, and then report back. It is hard work to do all these things and I wish I was able to do more but, again, I try to focus on what I can do and what I have already acheived.

It means more than you think, when I log on to this blog, check the number of views and find it has gone up. I take this opportunity to thank all thoses who read it. That in itself helps. My only request at this stage is that, for each of you that reads, could you mention it to somebody else who doesn't who may be interested?

The world can be overwelming for anyone in a thousand ways, but I firmly believe that every little thing helps and there are thousands of ways to do that. There are thousands of problems. That's why I do this and I have fun. Part of this I do for me. I have the self esteem that makes me believe that things can get better and I have been fortunate in that. Things do get better with love and care. If one child in Zambia gets an education and avoids contracting AIDS, if one child experiences the joy of scoring a in a goal with nets, if one extra person reads this blog and tells another then it will do no harm. And if a person who reads this is inspired to do one little thing, in one little place, anywhere in the world, it doesn't really matter what, then it will be worth it even more.

Every little thing helps