Kids find joy, hope learning to play sports in war-torn Darfur
Innocent Chileshe, a major in the African Union, believes [that] he can help change the future of war-torn Africa. All he needs are a few soccer balls.
Chileshe has spent the past year of his observatory mission in Sudan's Darfur region building a sports-outreach program for children. Using donated equipment — essentially cast-off American volleyballs and soccer balls — Chileshe has taught about 16,000 kids how to play. They learn about sports, he says, and gain much more.
"Sport is magical. It has an aspect that just unlocks the human nature," said Chileshe, a soft-spoken native of Zambia who grew up playing badminton, soccer, and volleyball. "Those who, under normal circumstances, stay down and do not want to speak, by virtue of just getting involved in some activity, it just opens them up and gives them the opportunity to express themselves."
It was not easy to find participants at first. Chileshe was involved with youth sports outreach in his home country, but encountered some skeptics when he arrived in Darfur last year. He was on military assignment, but took up the cause because of his own experience in athletics, and spent several months trying to gain the trust of local leaders and children.
"They're suspicious," said Chileshe, who traveled to Orlando on Wednesday to speak at the International Youth Sports Congress. "In the first place, you're in uniform. The ones who have done the damage to them have been in uniform, or at least were carrying a weapon."
Many of Darfur's children live without their parents, in dusty desert camps of up to 60,000 people, he said. They have never been taught how to play sports.
"Facilities in these camps are not exactly tiptop," Chileshe said. "They lean under trees, when they can find a tree. For most of the times, it's the teacher who sits under the tree. Children sit under the sun, and the sun in Sudan is not a friendly one."
Grass is difficult to find, and the sidelines are usually drawn in dirt or sand. Sometimes the goal line is just two rocks, [and] the volleyball net [is] a simple string between two posts.
It does not matter to the kids, Chileshe said.
"Sport brings joy," he said. "And in a situation like theirs, joy is not easy to find."
Scared and poor after four years of bloodshed between rebels and militia factions, most of them haven't been enthusiastic about anything for some time.
"The response that we're getting from these activities is enormous," said Chileshe's brother, Clement Mubanga Chileshe, who runs a similar program in Zambia. "Some children reported statements like 'I've never spoken to so many friends,' or 'I've never been so happy.'"
Not from $100 sneakers, fussy baseball gloves or soft leather balls, but donated consignments far less sophisticated than one could find in most American closets.
Chileshe does not even try to get shoes or cleats.
"One soccer ball reaches 22 people within a short time," he said. "If you get some attire — expensive as it may be, maybe the equivalent of a football — it would just count for one child."
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