The Perfect Day Foundation renames as the Volunteer Zambia Foundation

Same small charity, same big vision, just a new name.

Since its inception in 2007, The Perfect Day Foundation (PDF) has been a small charity, run by committed volunteers, to continue to empower young people in Zambia, through the power of sport.

Our support has consistently been channeled through the work of Sport In Action, a Zambian NGO based in Lusaka whose purpose is to make Zambian’s lives better through active, healthy and better living for all. Their involvement with the UK Sport International Development programme for university students (IDEALS) in 2007 led to a group of British students being inspired to continue their involvement way beyond their first visit to Zambia. From this, the Perfect Day Foundation was born and since 2007 has fundraised in excess of £100,000 to sustain a number of key projects via Sport In Action ever since.

• Our support of Fountain of Hope, an orphanage in Lusaka, has seen us kit out new dormitories for girls, build and redevelop hardcourt sport surfaces, build a sanitation block, repair cooking facilities and contribute to the monthly food programme that feeds all of their residents as well as hundreds of street children every day.
• Our education sponsorship programme currently supports over 40 children with their school fees. This has been going since 2010 and has seen over 30 students already graduate school, an opportunity they would not have had if it was not for generous sponsors and donors.
• We’re fortunate to have former Olympic swimmer and current coach of Adam Peaty, Mel Marshall, as an ambassador. Mel has twice coordinated significant fundraising challenges to raise in excess of £70,000. This has contributed to major facility development, as well as funding female empowerment programmes.

IDEALS came to an end in 2016, but the University commitment to a cultural exchange of knowledge and development remained. The project became known as Volunteer Zambia and after a two year hiatus because of COVID, students will return to Lusaka this summer.

The Perfect Day Foundation’s pipeline of volunteers and contributors is no secret, it is people returning from Zambia who are inspired to continue to support the amazing work of Sport In Action. While governed entirely independently of the Volunteer Zambia project, our alignment with the programme has continued to evolve. The charity not only provides an alumni engagement opportunity through financial fundraising, but our latest roles are providing alumni of the project an opportunity to stay a lot closer in supporting the development of the Hub Site models via what are labelled ‘thematic groups’. These groups focus in on a particular area of expertise that can provide knowledge and resources to Zambian volunteers and leaders.
But we are also very honest about our need to continue to raise money. The Perfect Day Foundation was the perfect name in 2007, but the reality is it bares less relevance to those new students joining the Zambia family 16 years on. Therefore, we’re thrilled to announce that to reinforce our close working relationship with the project, the charity will change its name to the Volunteer Zambia Foundation. Every student who passes through the project will have a clear understanding that our vision is tightly aligned to continuing the work they’ve been a part of.
We’re proud of our past, but even more excited about how our future will continue to support the tireless work of Sport In Action out in Zambia.

Hub Site – Netball Post Manufacturing Fundraiser

To celebrate the renaming of the charity, and to reinforce our commitment to development goals that align to the sustainable work of Sport In Action, we’re aiming to raise £1000 before the end of this year’s Volunteer Zambia project. Hub sites are embedding sustainable sporting activity across the country, and netball has been the pioneer sport to develop these models. With all sports, comes an equipment need and one of the amazing opportunities that the hub sites bring, is to align skills to create the equipment necessary. This has already been proven with the Matero site where manufacturing netball dresses is a skill developed and shared within the participants. We now want to extend this to the manufacturing of netball posts. If these can be built from within, it continues to embed the sustainability of the activity, and will provide support for generations to come.

To contribute to the ‘Hub Site Netball Post Manufacturing Fundraiser’, enabling this programme to be kickstarted, click here
You can subscribe to the Volunteer Zambia Foundation Newsletter by clicking here
You can contact us directly at foundation@volunteer-zambia.com