In 2013 United Nations General Assembly proclaimed April the 6th as International Day of Sport for Development and Peace to celebrate the sport and physical education contribution to the achievement of education, human development, healthy lifestyle goals and to obtain a more peaceful world.
A day apparently created especially for Sport2Build, embracing his own vision and the values that motivate it since its foundation.
So, what a better way to celebrate than arranging a super cross-country race engaging more than 300 all-aged kids from 7 different schools in the nearby of Lusaka and Kafue?!
I’m hereby trying to share my experience with you, hoping to get you carried away in what’s been a great effort that gave rise to an enormous satisfaction.
April the 3rd I left Milan as volunteer for this little but wonderful organization that Sport2Build actually is (to know it better you just have to click on here: www.sport2build.org). April the 4th I landed in Zambia at 3.30 pm, just an hour later I was with Giorgia (S2B) and Ralph (German Cooperation, sponsor of the event) to buy the ingredients that Zambian mothers would have used to cook the meal for every athletes, just a couple of days later, at the end of the race. Hence, I was catapulted in the organizational structure of this massive event.
I spent the 5th packing the prizes for all the participants and the following morning we jumped on a van with Bornface, Chipapa school coach, heading to the gathering place to attend the pre-race registration.
I was astonished by crowd we found along the way to get to the gathering place and by their enthusiasm. Slowly (but not so slowly!) I begun to understand how an event like that can be important and how effectively it can spread essential life skills lessons among those young athletes.
As soon as we arrived the registration started. 200 runners were already there waiting, standing under the rain which begun to drop, soothing the heat and creating the best conditions for the race. There were 4 categories: Junior Boys and Girls, Senior Boys and Girls. Since the registration begin it is possible to teach a lot about honesty and loyalty, there are slies indeed, who try to cheat falsifying his own age to compete against younger people.
Done with the first wave of inscriptions, here there was a truck loaded with hundred kids coming (with inevitable Zambian lateness). It s already a success!
The starting grid was set at the plot where S2B is building a new innovative school for vulnerable kids who usually don’t attend school because of their own handicap or because of the distance from the nearest school and the total absence of public transports. The meaning of this choice is to make villagers aware about the existence of this project.
Obviously, the most exciting thing was the race itself. Stare at those kids fighting to gain the first positions as well as just to reach the finish line has been a lesson, for me this time.
Once arrived and refreshed all the runners, we got on the award ceremony. Better saying we begun a great party with dances, chants and a marvelous poetry played by four of the kids about the African kids’ problems, which moved the Athletics Association of Zambia president who attended the prizegiving with a deputy from German Embassy.
So, a strong confrontation with this just begun Zambian adventure, a great success, a great emotion and a great celebration! Hope to do it again ASAP