In 2007, during the winter break of his first year at SIPA, Lund, originally from Denmark, traveled to Sierra Leone to explore community-based reconciliation initiatives. From 1991 to 2002, the country had endured a brutal civil war that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of more than 2 million more—roughly one-third of the country’s total population. The conflict also left scores of people wounded both physically and mentally from extreme acts of violence, and the country is still in the healing process.

 

While in Moyamba, a village outside Freetown, the country’s capital, Lund joined a group of children who were kicking around a flat, ripped football. After the game, he purchased a new ball for the kids and remembers vividly the joy that lit up their faces when he handed it to them.

 

“As a child, if I had a football, I was always happy,” said Lund, who graduates from SIPA this May. “Just giving a ball to children brought so much joy to them. I knew then that I wanted to do something through this sport.”

 

Upon his return to New York, Lund launched Play31, an organization founded on Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates every child’s right to play. Play31’s primary goal is to “spread joy and peace with football” in post-conflict countries.

 

Under Lund’s leadership, and with the help of friends and volunteers, Play31 has accomplished a great deal in the past year, garnering global media attention, including CNN International, The New York Times, and The Sydney Morning Herald, among others. In Sierra Leone, together with its Freetown-based partner, Forum of Conscience, Play31 has established football teams in five villages, and organized a tournament involving 26 villages in Kailahun, the country’s easternmost province.

 

Recently, United Nations ambassadors from Chile, Lichtenstein, Paraguay, the U.K., East Timor, and other countries, traded in their suits for soccer shorts to compete in Play31’s “DiploMatch” (see video), held in New York, to raise funds and awareness for the organization. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also participated. On May 13, Secretary-General Ban will present Lund a check for the money raised by the soccer match.

 

Beyond the media fanfare and attention of global leaders, Play31 has, more importantly, led to the transformation of survivors’ lives: burgeoning football leagues have sprung up throughout Sierra Leone, including those for women and girls, a first in the country, and community members are slowly rebuilding relationships. In Kailahun, soccer has now become an important part of the reconciliation process.

 

“Can you imagine? We have witnessed former offenders passing balls to victims,” said John Caulker, executive director of Forum of Conscience. “This is a true indicator of progress; when something like this happens, it cements a relationship.”

 

For his exemplary work, Lund will receive SIPA’s Harvey Picker Award for Public Service, established by Dean Emeritus Harvey Picker. Lund will receive a $1,000 check at the school’s graduation ceremony.

 

Following graduation, he hopes to remain in New York to expand the scope and reach of Play31 and eventually establish soccer-for-peace initiatives across the globe. Lund will remember Columbia as "an amazing place with amazing people," he said. "Combined with my experience of launching Play31, being at Columbia has only reinforced my belief that you can really make the world a better place – if you work hard and fight for it."