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Kicking Off Change: Sugar's Mission in Victoria Falls

Writer's picture: Rc DiedrichRc Diedrich

Updated: Jul 15, 2024

When Sugar is asked what started him on his mission to help the youth in his community, he says he had a feeling in his heart. Sugar is a middle-aged rafting guide living in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. He says that troubled youth has been a growing issue in his community for a while, but it was a series of suicides that opened his eyes to the urgent need to take action. Beyond suicides, his community faces issues relating to drugs and violence, and Sugar was particularly worried about young people being involved. He points to a lack of guidance as one of the root causes of the issues in his community and so he decided to take it upon himself to help young men spend their time in more productive ways.


Sugar (middle) in Victoria Falls

His first action was to create a soccer organization where young men can come together in a safe and healthy environment for structured activities. Though the goal has been primarily to keep the boys busy and away from some of the potential dangers, they play at a competitive level and are constantly working to improve as a team. They are not only coming together to stay away from certain things but also to work towards something bigger than themselves and to engage in a fun activity. This idea lies at the heart of Sugar’s mission. He is not only working to keep the youth of his community out of trouble but also to engage them in meaningful ways. While his program is about Soccer and giving young people a healthy place to be for a while, there is much more that is going on below the surface.


Sugar identifies a lack of guidance and support as a primary cause of many of the issues among the youth in his community. While his organization provides a degree of guidance and structure, it is not a full time program and so Sugar aims to cultivate a healthier community beyond the soccer field. Families are a good place to start because although many of them are not currently providing the support that their children need, they have the potential to shift the entire atmosphere. Sugar encourages parents to celebrate the talents and abilities that their children possess. He believes that this is crucial for young people to develop healthy ideas of themselves and of the world around them.


While a lot of Sugar's mission revolves around the practical issues in his community, his mission is built on a simple, more universal principle - to lift up vulnerable people. He says, “Just because children are addicted to drugs or involved with violence, we don’t have to put them down. We need to find alternative ways to lift them up because there is life after the lows.” Sugar’s words strike a core aspect of the human experience. So many people find themselves in difficult situations - situations they would rather not be in - and these people need to be lifted up, not put down. Offering alternative paths can be the catalyst needed for someone to make important changes in their lives.


Although Sugar’s soccer program is helping with the issues in his community, he has plans to do much more. Currently he is working on plans to develop a piece of land into a type of community center where the boys can be employed to do things like housekeeping, gardening and other housework. He also has plans to host classes to educate the boys and eventually wants to train some of them to be rafting guides. The goal of this community center is similar to the soccer organization - to give young men a safe, productive place to be. Setting up support systems for young people can make a big difference and Sugar is working to do just that. He says that financing is the main obstacle to making this happen and so in the meantime, he continues playing soccer with the boys, supporting them in the ways he can and making plans for the future.


Sugar’s mission resonates with the Alset community because, just like Sugar, Alset gives people alternative options that can make a big impact on the direction of their lives. Because of the similarities between the missions, Alset recently engaged with Sugar’s soccer program by sponsoring new uniforms. “It’s about helping people get what they need,” says Founder of Alset, Robert Lo, “and Alset is the way to make that happen. When we help others, we help ourselves and that is an important part of the human experience.” 



Like Sugar, Alset wants to support people in ways that can bring genuine positive change to their lives. The dangers of remaining complacent in unhealthy environments are very real and often scary so it is crucial that people have the opportunities to step away and create their own realities. Sugar says he wishes the world would remember that, “In life we have to help each other, we have to support the vulnerable people. We have the opportunity to bring people from nothing to something and It is so important not to just watch but to take action.” Sugar’s mission to help the young people in his community is no small task, but he is working diligently with his community to make Victoria Falls a better, safer place for everyone.


Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

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This post was written by Rc Diedrich. You can contact him at rcdiedrich@gmail.com.


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