The International Alliance for Youth Sports (IAYS) recently received praise from Zambian Vice President Rupiah Banda for its donation of various sports equipment to children of the flood-ravaged regions of Zambia.

   Thanks to the Global Gear Drive – an IAYS program dedicated to collecting new and used sports equipment for underprivileged youth – many Zambian youth currently displaced from their homes because of recent flooding will have the opportunity to participate in healthy, safe and fun sports activities.

   Clement Chileshe, the IAYS African representative, recently met with Vice President Banda at a Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit in Lusaka (Zambia) to present the equipment – which consisted of various types of balls and bats.

   The floods are a result of the massive rainfall that has recently swept the region. According to AllAfrica.com, an estimated 400,000 people are thought to have been affected by heavy flooding. Approximately 36,000 have been displaced and almost 3,500 homes and 44 schools have been damaged.

   The efforts of IAYS and its Global Gear Drive will hopefully provide an adequate distraction for the thousands of youth currently affected by this disaster.

   “The fact that they are distressed, this calls for an integral part of the psycho-social healing,” Chileshe said. “We feel distressed children should be happy despite the situation they have found themselves in.”

   Vice President Banda remarked that the sports equipment will not only relieve boredom for many of the displaced children, but it will also reassure them that they are still a valuable part of Zambian society.

   He also went on to say how the IAYS donation is a prime example of how people can help flood victims without necessarily donating money.

   IAYS has been striving to increase youth sports participation in Zambia since introducing its sports development program - Game On! Youth Sports - to the region in 2004. Thanks to the efforts of Chileshe and other valuable volunteers, thousands of Zambian children have already experienced the many positive benefits that sports participation provides.