Photo Credit: Courtesy of NAYS
A couple of years ago, I visited Zambia, where construction was beginning on the $140-million Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa; it was one of a handful of new stadiums erected to host World Cup games this past summer.
During the trip I met Mwale, an engaging 9-year-old, who uses a self-made hammer to chip away at rocks, earning roughly 50 cents a day for painstaking labor under the scorching sun. An orphan--one of the more than 600,000 AIDS orphans in a country that sees a staggering 200 people become infected with the life-shortening disease every day--he returns to his village each evening where all he wants to do is play soccer with his friends using a ball made of plastic bags wrapped in twine.
Such is the power of sports for children, whether it’s here or several time zones away.
