Soccer + Life Skills for 1,000+ Youth in Cameroon

Our Youth Enrichment Football League was launched in Kumba in the summer of 2013. We started with a few reluctant coaches and wanted to see how we could incorporate our life skills and health education into competitive soccer. After a few successful attempts and a few failures, too, we found the perfect combination with a balance of learning and play. This gave us the confidence to move ahead with our regional youth league. 

In October, we launched our Coaches' Clinics aimed at bringing together amateur coaches and referees, and anyone else who loves soccer, to share with them our new approach to the game. As training workshops continued, more coaches began to see the vision: a holistic approach to youth player development, where there is as great focus on performance on the pitch as their is in the classroom and at home. By the end of the month, we began to see a shift in attitudes of coaches in the three communities where we have planted our roots: Kumba, Mamfe and Ndu. With this new approach, we are creating Community Impact Coaches!

The feedback we got from one of our coaches, Harrison Tetu of Wumjeck F.C.  sums it up best:

"The kids are really enjoying the new model. They are seeing improvements in their behaviour and are having the most fun when they are playing the game. They shake hands to show respect to their peers and do not fight with other teams like they used to. We are teaching them so many things through football that they can never learn anywhere else."

As the saying goes in Cameroon, "Long Live the Republic of Cameroon. Long Live CFDP. "

Stay tuned for more exciting updates as we roll out the league in new communities in the Southwest and Northwest Regions.

Links:

• Check out a Video of Your Equipment in Cameroon!