Six Loughborough University students volunteering to boost sports coaching and development in Zambia this summer are being backed by us.

The £600 sponsorship - £100 for each student, will help to pay for kit, training, equipment, travel and living costs in the Zambian capital Lusaka during the six week placement.

They will join volunteers from six other universities who are also members of the Wallace Group, which has been working with Zambian authorities for 13 years to build the country's capacity to widen participation and develop talent.

Karolina Balcova, third year sport and exercise student, is one of the Loughborough volunteers. Karolina, who will focus on volleyball during the summer said: "We aim to develop the foundations for sport in Zambia. 

"Each coach who we help will go on to help others and that will help the sports to become more sustainable. It's also going to be a completely new experience for me and I'm very interested in sports development.

"It's great to have the support of Kinchbus and the sprint, which I use pretty much every day to get between lectures". 

Another of the students going to Zambia is Charlotte Sparling from Melton. Charlotte, a first year sports coaching student, heads to Zambia at the end of May and said: "I'm really looking forward to it and counting down the days. 

"We've still got some group fundraising to do and to all be supported by Kinchbus is great. It shows a local company cares about what we are doing."

General manager Sue Blount said: "We were very pleased to hear from Karolina and her colleagues about their volunteering with this excellent project in Zambia.

"They each had a lot of fundraising to do too, and both Kinchbus and sprint are right behind all of them."