“Because of sport, my life has been changed.”

To mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on 6th April, Sport in Action has launched the “Because of sport” campaign to highlight the impact of sport on the development of participants and leaders across our programmes.

Our final interview of the campaign is with Neria, from Zambezi Primary School in Livingstone.

“I started playing handball through my friend, six years ago. I always find happiness in sport and want to be fit all of the time.

For me, sport is a tool that one can use to socialise and learn more things. I have come to understand that sports people are more open minded and sport is a universal language which every human can speak. Sport can make you a happy person, as well as motivated, courageous and open minded.

Sport has really helped me to be who I am today. It has changed my life from a village single mother to a Zambian national team player and has opened the way for me to Germany, where I am now. If I hadn’t been involved in sport, I would have been a full-time housewife.

In the future, I would like to study sport and bring all single mothers in to the world of sport to help them to benefit the way I have. I have met a lot of people through sport and I hope that these people and organisations will help me to reach my goals.

Because of sport, my life has been changed.”