Meet the Team - Isla Young

Initial thoughts:
I was attracted to it because it is very well designed. The project was going about trying to fix problems with the right idea – aimed at kids and using sport as a practical tool to do it.

There’s lots of chances to be involved in projects abroad but this one uses skills which money can’t buy. Throwing money at projects in poorest areas of the world doesn’t crack it. Having read about this before I came and was particularly interested in working with children without parents. I’m struck that a life without parents is a life without a childhood. PZ allows children to have a taste of childhood. The peer leaders, the coaches, the leaders, all give children the chance to play, do sports and feel like a child for a little while.

As much as experiencing a childhood is important, by using the experience of PZ even for a summer, the kids get the chance to learn some skills that may mean they will be better parents when they’re older, giving their children a chance to live as children for a while.

From a practical point of view we try to have an impact on drug abuse, HIV spread etc. but I think the most important thing that we do is increase self esteem – both directly and indirectly. The reinforcement of self esteem comes from the sports, from the leaders’ feedback, and the kids respond to that.

Impressions of Lusaka:
It’s a dirty city. There’s a school on every street – and an NGO logo. It’s such a young population. A lot of the stuff I expected to feel harrowed by isn’t necessarily in your face. Today, for example, I saw 12 – 15 funeral processions. There’s children everywhere and few adults. There’s rubbish in the streets everywhere – it tells a story. They can’t organise bins here.

The buses need a completely different perspective to use. Everyone is friendly, but I struggle with being the focus of attention. I have difficulty with the whole “muzungu” thing. The attention is difficult…not feeling threatened is a problem especially from men when some of our male partners aren’t around.

Everyone smiling..But then there’s the school noticeboards…notices outlining who are the double orphans, single orphans, at risk children. The school committees…including the essential core committee, the “funeral” committee. I met my site coordinator last week – he’d had a few days off. He apologised and said he’d had three funerals to attend in the previous week. I’ve attended three in my whole life.


Impressions of the value of the project:
The thing I’m happiest about is that we are in the supporting role. SIA are so good at what they do. We just support them but we are told constantly that we are invaluable in that and that they need us to reinforce them. The SIA staff are so good at what they do – if I can be half as good as the staff are with kids by the time I’m qualified then I’ll be happy. I trust the SIA staff. If they say they need us, then we’re helping.

The project lasts all the year round. If we were here for 10 weeks and we left then I wouldn’t be happy. But we’re not. We give it a boost each summer and keep it going idefinitely.


Impressions of the team:
I’ve learned to live with such a diverse team of people. I’m very luck to work with them all. It’s been a huge learning curve to live with people in such close proximity.