The charity’s own fundraising football team Glasgow on the Ball is trying to raise £8,500 by the end of May to fight coronavirus in Zambia by running the distance of Glasgow to Zambia to raise cash to help fight the virus.

Africa on the Ball runs a range of programmes in Kalingalinga, Zambia which uses the power of football to promote better health and wellbeing.

So far the charity has raised £3,556.

As it’s no longer possible to play football due to the outbreak, the charity is finding new ways to help the community and recently received a micro-grant of £500 from Corra Foundation to support the community to fight COVID-19.

This enabled Africa on the Ball to meet urgent costs such as soap, toilet roll, tapped buckets of water and PPE for medical staff and community workers. They also bought 300 washable face masks for members of the community, made by the Women’s Economic Empowerment Zambia, based in Lusaka.

Poor infrastructure and amenities in Zambia makes people particularly vulnerable during an outbreak and the chance of survival is significantly lower than in developed countries.

The country only has 17 ventilators for a population of over 18 million people, in comparison to the 5,900 the NHS currently has.

Africa on the Ball is also providing educational workshops in Kalingalinga about hygiene, sanitation and social distancing and distributing food and baby clothes to vulnerable people who have been most affected by the outbreak.

But there is still much more to do and that is why the charity’s Sunday League amateur football club, Glasgow on the Ball, aims to raise an additional £8,500 for the COVID-19 project by the end of May.

Kelvin Chasauka, AOTB project manager in Kalingalinga, said: “COVID-19 has greatly affected the community and things are not the same as they were a few months ago.

“The virus has contributed to a rise in house break-ins, not only in Kalingalinga, but many other communities. “Because we can’t use football just now to promote positive social change we are finding new ways.

“We are leading the way towards reducing the spread of COVID-19 to give people hope and show them we are all together in this fight.”

• Read all of our articles relating to COVID-19 here.