In 2023, six students formed the ACE2Zambia team, this year we had a focus on maintenance and fabrication, with our primary challenge being the refurbishment of a netball court, a basketball court and an ablutions block. Other tasks included the fabrication of football goals and the creation of a digital asset register.
This year we managed to raise over £10,000 towards the construction and fabrication costs, which went towards materials and labour. A massive thank you goes to our generous sponsors, without their support the work would not have been able to go ahead this year. These include: The Wallace Group, Wentworth House, University of Bath Alumni Fund, Ridge and Partners LLP, Momentum Structural Engineers, Grant Associates and Solid Engineering. To find out more about our sponsors please visit our Funding page. A further thank you goes to everyone who was kind enough to attend our fundraising events, or donated through our JustGiving page.
The work started with the refurbishment of the basketball court and ablutions block located within Kabwata Playpark. This site had unfortunately deteriorated over time, and the team was tasked with bringing it back up to standard, by working with the local community and Sport In Action we were able to best determine what the site needed to improve. This involved the resurfacing of the basketball court, repair of the basketball hoops and new seating, our role consisted of attending site daily to manage and monitor the progress. This work will allow SIA to continue to offer their amazing free basketball coaching and improve the site’s ability to host competitions. The work carried out on the ablutions block involved repainting, replacing broken windows and adding new steel doors, this has breathed new life into the building and made it considerably safer.
Once the court at Kabwata had been resurfaced, the focus moved to Mtendere Community School’s netball court, which had also suffered deterioration over the years. Given the budget A2Z was able to raise this year, the court was entirely resurfaced using hot rolled asphalt, which will give the court a much longer lifespan and save in further maintenance costs.
Alongside the refurbishment works, the team was also tasked with designing new football goals to be fabricated by local welders. By meeting with SIA coaches and the fabricators, we were able to create a design that would be easy to construct, and suitable for the coaches and children to use. This concluded in a design that was modular and able to be used for different age groups.
2023 also saw the continuation of the collaboration between A2Z and the University of Zambia, this year four students from the civil engineering department, Sikuh, Atotwe, Clement and Ana were able to get involved in the construction process. They were keen to get stuck in and were a great help to the team, helping to break down the language barriers and giving a great insight into how engineering projects can be achieved in Zambia. They visited the sites once or twice a week and the experience they have gained will help them in their studies and work. It was an incredible experience being able to work with the UNZA students and is something we look forward to in the future.
Ultimately the team has thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity the project has given us this year, despite some setbacks we have persevered through and we have all learnt a considerable amount during our time in Zambia this year.
ACE2Zambia 