Soccer + Life Skills for Hundreds of Youth

After several weeks of preparation, CameroonFDP youth soccer leagues kicked off last month with great excitement in Kumba and Mamfe. Two members of our staff, Wallace and Caroline, recently completed an online training course from partners, Coaches Across Continents, and were eager to share their knowledge with coaches from the two communities. Clinics in both sites in January and February allowed our team to provide our local coach-mentors with fun soccer games and educational discussion topics on the theme for the 2016 spring season: gender equity.

Along with kick off of the league comes the youth leadership initiative, which provides the opportunity for Kumba youth to participate in leadership training and take an active role in developing their neighborhood. One team already got the season off to a great start with a community service project at Ma Azi orphanage. Players from Legend FC, under the leadership of their brilliant coach Kingsley, joined youth in the orphanage for a clean up of the compound. After encouraging their peers to become leaders, despite their current conditions, they shared a meal together to signify their unity and common goal to grow and develop as the future of Cameroon.

Thanks to your support, we are able to continue to provide coaches clinics and trainings as part of our unique model that creates youth soccer leagues for community development. Since we started this approach 2 years ago, the local response has been overwhelmingly positive! We look forward to continuing to grow this model, engaging more players, coaches, and teams this year. Please stay connected to see what we can achieve together!

Links:

• UN Int'l Day of Sport for Development and Peace is Apr 6th!
• Check out week 3 of the action from Mamfe!
• Sheer joy in all youth as Kumba league kicks off!