MEET Lyson Zulu,
Programmes Manager, OYDC.

Born on 20th November, 1986.

“The dream was to play football professionally but my father Edward always encouraged us to persue education. He always emphasised how sport was a short career as he himself used to be a professional footballer in the old days”.

Lyson participated in the World Youth Football tournaments in Sweden and Norway from a very young age as part of the Kalingalinga Edusport team.

In 2007, Lyson received a football scholarship by the University of Bath where he graduated for his first degree. He first flew out there for trials for 10 days which was successful and started playing for the university team which won the British University Championships, gave him his first gold medal. He later moved to Loughborough for his honors degree where he graduated, which meant more work, more discipline for him.

Above all, playing for U20 and senior National Team brought Lyson so much joy. He went to school and got his bachelors in Sport Sciences and Management.

Back home he played for Zanaco and after an injury, switched to administration as OYDC needed someone to take over from George Lwandamina as Head of Football. Firstly as a consultant and later given a permanent position. Steadily, He was promoted as Health and Education Officer and subsequently as Programmes Manager (His Current Position).

Lyson is initiator of a community service NGO called Umutima which supports over 100 young people in sport with education by paying their school fees and giving them the gift of education. Umutima has sponsored many young people from Kalingalinga, Chawama, Bauleni, Ngombe and some parts of Zambia. The iniciative has strong backing from the UK where he went to school.
Lyson has won many awards and is recognized world over for his contributions in sport development.

Lyson Zulu is next week on the 29th of December expected to wed PRMC Executive Director Bernadette Deka, he has never been married before and will be marrying for the first.j