Education Cameroon Project #12502

Soccer + Life Skills for Hundreds of Youth

by Open Field

Soccer + Life Skills for Hundreds of Youth

Project Report | May 27, 2014
GAMES DAY:CELEBRATE ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL YEAR

By Justin Forzano | CEO

David receives an award, Most Outstanding Student

A total of 100 students from our partner schools came together to participate in our annual end-of-year Games Day. Ten student representatives - the best in each of the CFDP clubs - were selected to represent their schools. While a few schools were unable to participate due to exam schedules, those students who were in attendance will carry forth the great vibes from the day. As usual, our team of dedicated staff and volunteers in Kumba created a most memorable experience for the youth.

The morning activities featured five competitive soccer games, including challenging ones like chipping the ball into the oil drum and a juggling competition, where some youths acutally 'tapped' the soccer ball over 200 times! The afternoon activities were the most interesting part of the day! In the classroom, student groups faced off in a quiz to test their knoelwedge of the educational topics we discussed over the past year. All of the CFDP clubs competing scored greater than 70% on the team quiz and the top two teams received over 90% scores. This is really encouraging because it demonstrates that students are learning from our programs. The schools that performed the best are those where the CFDP programs have been running the longest: GSS Nkamlikum (Champions, First Partner School - since 2010), BHS Barombi Kang (Most Dedicated Volunteer Leader, 2nd Place), and GBHS Kossala (First Partner School - since 2010).

The number of lives that our after-school programs have touched over the past year is nothing short of amazing. From student leaders who are finding their hidden potential and working towards new goals to the volunteer leaders who act as mentors and provide guidance through the challenging times of life as an adolescent in Kumba.

As we get ready to break for the summer holidays, we are excited to announce a new initiative we will launch in four schools: peer educators. Those students who have excelled (especially from the top performing CFDP school clubs mentioned above) will now be trained to run after school sessions on their own and gain invaluable leadership skills in these new positions. We are excited for next year and look forward to sharing more on our progress later this summer.

Thank you for supporting our after-school programs. Without you, none of this is possible. It's just that simple. Thank you for helping to change the lives of 500 boys and girls in Kumba, Cameroon.

Girls Play and Compete with the Boys!

A Big Group of Students Stand Before the Start

Competing in the Team Quiz Component of the Day

Prizes for All Participants; Awards for Top Youth

Be the Change You Wish to See in the World

Links:

Check out more about previous years' Games Day (with video!)

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Jan 7, 2014
Updates on an EPIC Year of After-school Programs!

By Justin Forzano, aka "K-Man" | Executive Director

CFDP Youth and their Leaders at the Launching

Happy New Year from Cameroon! It’s a great pleasure to update you, our supporters, on our after-school programs in K-town. I am excited to write to you after returning from two weeks in-country, engaged with our team in a strategic planning sessions and discussing potential expansion to two cities in the SouthWest Region via two partner organizations – more on that in our next update! Out first semester of the 2013-2014 school year was one which involved new schools, new leaders, and several new students in our innovative approach to youth empowerment, health and social education.

We kicked things off in late September with the official launching of our programs with a 2-day event sponsored by a grant from our partners, the U.S. Peace Corps. Our own Peace Corps volunteer posted in the office, Ryan, helped coordinate things so that more than 200 students from 13 schools participated in soccer activities, quizzes, debates, and other friendly competitions. The weekend was completed with voluntary HIV screening for older youths in our program. More than 70 young men and women were tested and all of the CFDP youth tested results were NEGATIVE! The event was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the good decisions our youth are making to ensure a healthy, long life.

Weekly sessions continued in each of the 14 participating schools in the months following until early December when the students went on Christmas Holidays. With creation of CFDP clubs in half of the schools (we are working on the other half now!), we are working towards sustainability to ensure student-driven programs continue for a long time.

To complement our after-school programs, our community-based youth enrichment football (soccer) league combines friendly competitions with health and social education. Every match that teams play has a theme. I was at the field to watch some games last week and the scene was nothing short of amazing. Team captains were engaging their players in discussions about the theme “self-respect” during their warm ups. Motivational statements were read via loud speaker right before the game to let everyone in attendance know that the game being played was about more than just soccer. I tell you, I was inspired! We are truly changing the way youth soccer is being played here in Kumba!

We look forward to a great second semester of activities in our schools. The focus for 2014 will be a shift to training more peer educators. Empowering this group is another step toward sustainability; plus, who else better to invest our training resources than the youth? They are our future. I invite you to stay connected with CFDP on our blog and via newsletters (sign up here) for more updates.

Wishing you all the best in the New Year!

CFDP Player Cards for the Youth League

This is one CFDP family! 3 current participants

Playing Games to Make Learning Fun!

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Sep 19, 2013
It's That Time of Year... Back to School!

By Justin Forzano | Executive Director

Thanks to your support of our after-school programs last year, we are moving full steam ahead into our fourth year of educational programming in secondary schools in Kumba!! This time around, we have the endorsement of the Divisional Delegate of Secondary Education for Meme Division and official support from administrators at many of our long-time partners and a few new private, parochial, and public institutions of learning. Students in partner schools in Kumba are surely excited for what is to come! And here is a preview for you:

Volunteer teachers and coaches have already participated in several of our Leadership Training seminars and workshops and others will continue to do so this month.
Weekly after-school programs, with a new curriculum and new soccer drills thanks to this summer’s capacity-building efforts, will be underway in the next two weeks.
October will include a massive two-day event, sponsored by the Peace Corps Cameroon, to officially kick-off another year of activities!
Message boards will go up in all of the schools with monthly values, student spotlights, and activities to engage everyone in the school in the lifelong learning objectives of CameroonFDP.
Upcoming inter-scholastic games, competitions and workshops including our annual Conference on Sport for Youth Empowerment and Community Development in partnership with Go Ahead Africa!, scheduled for December 2013.

To show you the impact you have helped us to make over the last year, we want to highlight one bright young gentleman by the name of Enow David. David has been involved with CameroonFDP since we started at G.S.S. Nkamlikum in 2010. At first he was very shy and soft-spoken, but after some time he began to gain confidence and display his ability to lead his peers. After his second year in the program, David was elected President of the Nkamlikum Club and helped build it to one of the most populous and involved clubs. He helped to build a culture within the club last school year – so much so that other students who were not affiliated with our programs would often come to the field just to watch. They will sign up to play this year!

Now David has left Nkamlikum for the lower sixth of college, the equivalent of our 11^th grade, at Cameroon College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in Kumba. Rather than joining the CameroonFDP club at CCAS, David will return to Nkamlikum to volunteer as a Junior Leader and help out leaders, Wallace and Ivo, both of whose dedication to their youth has undoubtedly had a tremendous influence on David.

Thank you for investing in the lives of young people in Kumba!

To stay connected, please sign up for our awesome weekly newsletter (so short and so sweet) and check out the updated website!

Links:

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