SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union men's soccer team donated various equipment to the Banda Bola Sports Foundation for the seventh consecutive year to support young boys and girls in the country of Malawi.

The Banda Bola Sports Foundation is working with the Chituka Village Project, a village in Northern Malawi. The goal is to transform the lives of rural poor children in the village and the greater region by providing after-school sports, activities and supplies for school.

Children in Malawi face adversities including but not limited to: extreme poverty, famine, drought, disease and low life expectancy. Despite the existence of elementary and middle schools, many of these schools lack the basic supplies such as pencils, pens, notebooks and textbooks. Additionally, education is not mandated for children, therefore, children do not have the opportunity for education.

At home, many of these children also face hardship that deprives these kids of a sense of childhood. Young girls find themselves taking on a role of parenthood while others find themselves orphans at a young age.

The Banda Bola Sports Foundation plans to effect change by providing resources and collaborating with local organizations, schools and soccer clubs to provide aid and support to the children of Malawi.

Coach Kalekeni "Keni" Banda, a Chituka village native, holds local ties as he worked at the University of Albany and with the local Select Team program. He  returned to Malenga Mzoma Primary School in Chituka Village in 2007 to launch the Banda Bola Sports Foundation. He helped aid the Children of Chituka by delivering school supplies and sports equipment, and ensuring each child has, at minimum, a pencil, pen and notebook. The after school education mentoring program was also established to mentor in reading, writing and math.

"I am particularly proud of this year's team and the effort to be part of the global community and to be service oriented student athletes," head coach Jeff Guinn said. "Our team did a great project in August visiting a school in a very poor section of San Jose Costa Rica. This experience, I believe, made more players buy into the idea of helping others. The response to my request for donations to the Banda Bola foundation this year has been phenomenal. Its our 7th year doing this and this has been the most impressive."

For more information about the Banda Sports Foundation, please click here.