How UK based charity Alive & Kicking helped Zambia develop the stars to reach the African Cup of Nations final

The Copper Bullets have reached the final of the continental tournament for the first time since 1994, and will take on the Ivory Coast in Sunday's showpiece game

10 Feb 2012 21:20:00

By Andrew Kennedy

More On :  Ivory Coast, Zambia
Nathan Sinkala - Zambia
Getty Images

Zambia saw off African Cup of Nations favourites Ghana 1-0 on Wednesday to reach their first final in the continental tournament since 1994, with a UK based charity taking a small amount of credit for the team’s success.

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Alive & Kicking has supplied over 100,000 leather stitched balls to the country since 2004, with the social enterprise charity opening stitching factories in both Zambia and Kenya, helping to employ hundreds of local people.

Over the past eight years, hundreds of thousands of footballs which have been branded with HIV/AIDs awareness messages have been given out free of charge to children across the region.

Sughra Hussain, the Country Director of Alive & Kicking Zambia, has spent over three years helping to develop the charities work across every province of the nation, and is delighted to have helped play a part in developing the countries footballing talent.

Speaking at a recent Afcon event, Hussain said: “Seeing the Copper Bullets in the final fills everyone at Alive & Kicking Zambia with pride.

“Having made over 100,000 leather footballs in Lusaka, that have been played with across the country, we know that we’ve played our part in creating the talent that has helped the Zambian national team develop into the effective force they are.”

The initiative has received the support of a number of famous faces, including former Arsenal star Emmanuel Eboue and even US President Barack Obama.

“One day I hope that the Africa Cup of Nations uses a ball that was handstitched in Africa by Alive & Kicking,” Hussain continued.

“The quality of the football at this tournament has been so high and is matched by the quality of the products that this continent can make for itself – just like Alive & Kicking balls.”

In celebration of Zambia’s Afcon success, with the Copper Bullets set to face Ivory Coast in Sunday’s final, Alive & Kicking have promised to donate 500 hand-stitched leather footballs to schools throughout the country in 2012.

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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

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19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
19:24 BST
No, no, no. I'll have none of that Emile Heskey shouting anymore! Hello, it's me, it's me, it's that D-O-Y-L-E. Yes, I'm Joe Doyle, and I'll be here for all the reaction to that England game. First things first, how did everyone see that game? Good performance? A touch boring? Let me know on Twitter.
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