TackleAfrica Coach:
Graeme Sears

Project Description:

(i) Bolga
Date: October 2009

For the first week of the project, Graeme visited TackleAfrica partner AfriKids in Bolga. AfriKids is a Child Rights organisation working to improve life for Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Their work ranges from the more traditional children’s projects including foster homes, schools and street child centres to more groundbreaking initiatives which tackle complex cultural issues including HIV, child trafficking and child labour.

TackleAfrica had sent a team out previously in 2007, so Graeme primarily went back to see how those coaches were doing and do some follow up coaching with them. Over a 3 day period Graeme, ran a refresher course with 14 coaches in attendance. This included delivering drills from the TackleAfrica coaching manual as well as HIV education workshops. Graeme also tested some new drills which will be part of the next edition of the TackleAfrica coaching manual which is coming out in 2010.

Graeme also visited the following coaches to evaluate their delivery of the coaching manual to their teams. The opportunity to get feedback from Graeme proved very useful and helped the coaches to continue their development and give them confidence to use the coaching manual more regularly.

• Coach Ayine Nicolas: Soccer Masters U12 (15 players)
• Coach Salifu Fatwu: Juventus U17 (20 players)
• Coaches Abwbakar Malik & Azabre Paulina: Sharp Arrows Ladies FC U15 (16 players)
• Coach Ataih Albert: Harvest Academy U15 (30 players)

(ii) Tamale
Date: October 2009

In the second week, Graeme went to visit another partner, RAINS (Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems) in Tamale. TackleAfrica had sent coaches out earlier in the year to work with R.A.I.N.S, so again Graeme’s primary objective was to see how the coaches were doing, if they needed any support and demonstrate more TackleAfrica drills.

During the week, Graeme visited 9 previously trained coaches around Tamale working with over 300 players, both boys and girls, in teams of all age groups from U12 to U17. Graeme also ran a refresher course for around 20 previously trained coaches demonstrating both drills from the current manual and drills from the new manual due out in 2010.

HIV and Young People in Africa

TackleAfrica works in sub-Saharan Africa, the part of the world most affected by HIV and AIDS where young people are one of the groups most at risk of infection. It is estimated that 10 million people aged 15-24 are living with HIV worldwide, this age group represents about 40% of all new infections. We aim to promote positive behaviour change among young people, by providing them with information about HIV and AIDS through the medium of football.

Despite the crucial role that young people have to play in mitigating the impact of HIV, the level of awareness remains low, especially in rural areas.  Young men and women are becoming sexually active in their teens, but parents, schools and community leaders are often reluctant to talk to them about sex before they are perceived to be adults, this is often too late.

We acknowledge that although we make every effort to include girls/young women and increase their participation in football, and many of our volunteer coaches are women, the fact remains that most of the young people we work with are boys/young men. We believe that they are an important target group, particulary those who do not attend school, as they are often missed out by more general HIV education or health programmes.

One of the strongest influences on the speed at which the HIV virus spreads is the sexual behaviour and attitudes of men.  It the communities where we work, it is usually men, not women, who hold the power in sexual relations, determining when and how often sex takes place and whether or not a condom is used. However old they are when they first have sex, attitudes to sexuality and women are formed at an early age. Helping boys to learn about relationships and sex before they are sexually active is key in influencing them to adapt their behaviour in future.

In order for the power relations to change, young women need to become empowered, educated and economically independent, but this cannot happen in isolation. Young men must be involved and included, learning to respect their sexual partners and women in general, they can become role models and peer educators in HIV prevention campaigns, helping to protect the next generation.