TackleAfrica Coaches:
Gavin Atkins, Karen Atkins

Project Description:

Tamale
Date: April 2009

For this project, TackleAfrica partnered with R.A.I.N.S (Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems). RAINS works with local communities and Development Partners to improve the quality of life of women, youth and other vulnerable groups through Grassroots Institutional Capacity Building, the promotion of human rights and sustainable use and management of resources in a culturally sensitive manner. It has concentrated it efforts since its inception in the Northern parts of Ghana.

For the first three days of the project, the coaches delivered a TackleAfrica coaching course at BISCO, a local school with an 11-a-side pitch. There were 24 coaches in attendance over three days who took part in the course, which included:

• Delivery of TackleAfrica drills to local coaches by Gavin and Karen
• ‘Rules of the game’ workshop
• Session Planning and Delivery discussion
• ‘What makes a good coach’ workshop
• Delivery of TackleAfrica drills by local coaches with feedback and evaluation from Gavin and Karen.

For the remainder of the project, Gavin and Karen delivered TackleAfrica drills to over 400 children who are part of the Goal Ghana project, another partner of TackleAfrica in Ghana. GoalGhana helps young people in poor areas receive attention, develop skills and most importantly, have fun through football. The Goal Ghana project in conjunction with R.A.I.ND.S is split into three areas – Tamale, Savelugu and Bogu-naayilli. The project culminated with a Gala Tournament in which nearly 200 players participated.

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.

The coaching manual consists of a series of specially designed coaching drills that not only improve football skills but also the players’ understanding of how to stay safe from HIV/AIDS, how the virus works, challenging myths and stigma and where to go for support. The drills have been developed by TackleAfrica’s volunteer coaches during a series of football projects across Africa and will enable other volunteers and partner organisations to carry out coaching sessions that help to teach young people in Africa about HIV/AIDS in an innovative and engaging way.

Working with over 1,000 young people and 50 local ‘multipliers’, the 8 TackleAfrica coaches visited a number of locations around Accra and Tamale to ensure that the impact of the project will be sustainable by enabling local staff to continue HIV/AIDS through football sessions in the future.  Tackle Africa would like to thank local partners RAINS, SOS Ghana, Children Better Way and Goal Ghana for their support in this project.

Charlie Gamble, a trustee of TackleAfrica and author of the coaching manual comments:

“We believe that the launch of the manual - particularly at a time when football was even higher on the local agenda than usual – has enabled us to deliver crucial HIV/AIDS messages to large numbers of young people in an interactive, positive and memorable way.  Most importantly, our work with local coaches and multipliers is the first step in ensuring that the positive impact of the manual can be continued long into the future”

Dr Bella Bello Bitug, Campaigner, sport for development, currently working with SOS Ghana, adds:

“Football is a great way of reaching young people in Ghana and The Cup of Nations provided us with an excellent opportunity to raise vital issues and spread messages about HIV and AIDS. We’re really looking forward to working with TackleAfrica further, and using the coaching manual.”

In late September, 20 intrepid volunteers from across the UK set off on a six month HIV/AIDS awareness football tour of West and East Africa. Flying into Morocco, the team travelled down the West Cost of Africa as far as Senegal, before turning inland and passing through Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria before reaching Cameroon in mid December. After New Year the team flew across to Ethiopia, before travelling down into Kenya, and on into Uganda and finally finishing the project in Tanzania in late March. Over the course of the 6 months, the project team took part in 16 different HIV awareness events and played more than 40 games of football.

Each event was carried out in collaboration with an established local NGO, ensuring that the event was geared for the specific needs of the local community. The events varied enormously in terms of size and style, with venues ranging from glistening national stadia to dirt pitches with no proper goals or markings. The opposition was also hugely eclectic – on some occasions full times pros and even internationals, and at other times school teams or farm workers.

As well as taking part in football matches, the team also took part in HIV awareness seminars and workshops, street parades, cultural evenings and schools visits – all designed to increase people’s awareness and understanding of HIV and AIDS and to challenge people to take positive steps to protect themselves against the disease.

The project team also distributed leaflets and posters and other materials to help raise AIDS awareness, and also a huge amount of sports equipment – hoping to help local partners to continue to run similar events in the future, and encouraging the local community to take part in the activities.

At the end of the project, the team returned to the UK road weary and exhausted, but also filled with a considerable sense of achievement. Over the course of the 16 events, the volunteers had won a huge number of friends, and had been able to convey vital messages to more than 50,000 people.

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