I am about to leave Malawi which means that I am roughly halfway through my journey in Africa. I have volunteered in South Africa and Malawi and still need to go to Tanzania and Zambia. So what has Malawi been like? Even though it seems like I just arrived yesterday, in reality I have been here a month. I have met literally hundreds of people, have memories that would normally fill up an entire year and which will last me a lifetime.

Old Malawi Flag (1964-2010)

New Flag! (July 29, 2010)

Malawi is a place of eternal optimism. They know that they are improving as a society and see the present and future as a bright shining beacon of hope. To illustrate this they even changed their flag during my visit! It used to be a sun rising over a horizon indicating the dawn and promise of a new country but the new flag now has the sun represented in full midday blaze. This is a country with obvious problems of poverty, infrastructure, and health/social issues such as malaria and street children. And in the face of these problems you have a smiling populace attacking their challenges head-on with groups such as Play Soccer Malawi.

Abel and Brian

I have never met a man more happy than Play Soccer’s program manager Abel Mkandawire who sings and smiles and laughs more in a day than a room full of kindergarteners. He has been our unofficial guide through the city and making sure that we get to every training session by navigating the confusing mass of minibuses. It was raining and cold and windy last week and he kept bee-bopping like Bobby McFerrin who sang the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” Maybe smiling in the face of adversity is a way to cope with the difficulties he sees daily as he helps to implement the Play Soccer three-pronged curriculum of Health, Social, & Soccer in the three extremely impoverished communities of Bangwe, Ndirande, and Chigumula. Or maybe he smiles because he gets to work outdoors with children and dedicated volunteer coaches from the communities. Or maybe he is smiling because he sees that over the past five years of working with Play Soccer Malawi he really is making a difference and knows that he will continue making a difference.

As I look back on my last month here I have to ask myself whether I made a difference and will that difference continue after my departure? While I was here I had a chance to design a week-long teacher/coach education program with my Coaches Across Continents colleagues Tommy Yikes and Phil Larrett. It seemed really well received and was taught at all three sites. We could see real improvement when the Play Soccer volunteer coaches took control to do their field practical sessions. I hope that the confidence they earned during our course will translate to their sessions with the kids when the Play Soccer program resumes at the start of the school year. If that happens then our mission here is a success and we will have indirectly helped 5,000 kids who need it most.

Phil Larrett, Walter Manda (FAM and PS Malawi President), Patricio Kulemeka (PS Malawi Country Program Manager), and Me

I also have been working with Play Soccer Country Program Manager Patricio Kulemeka and Board of Director President Walter Manga (who is also the Football Association of Malawi president) to design and implement a fundraising strategy. Like most NGOs, Play Soccer has a constant struggle for finances. Great programs that need funds always seem to get too little to be able to reach everyone that they need to. The new fundraising strategy we devised needs to raise money locally through corporations and events so that Play Soccer can sustain and maybe even expand their great program into more impoverished communities throughout Malawi. We have targeted several promising companies and set up meetings and proposals so hopefully these will bear fruit in the coming months.

Too good a picture not to use again!

I guess the hard part for me is that I will not see the end result of the efforts that we have put in this month on the field and in the office. The results will only be seen by those who live here. It will only be seen after years of work with the kids when they become graduates of the Play Soccer curriculum and grow into mature, healthy, socially responsible adults on whom the future of Malawi will be built. Maybe that is the real reason people are always smiling here. They know that good work is being done, and that it will bear fruit in the long term. Malawians are smiling because they know the future is bright, while I am a bit sad because I will be leaving and will not see this result except from afar. Maybe I need to adopt more of Abel’s attitude and just scat and bee-bop my way through life confidently knowing that the sun will be always be shining on Malawi.

For my first Malawi Smiles blog please Click Here

August 21st, 2010:  In 2010 the demand for Coaches across Continents continued to grow at a rapid rate and programs were added in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, so that by the end of 2010 there will be 18 programs in 6 countries impacting up to 90,000 children and teachers.

So far in 2010 our wonderful coaches have worked in Nairobi with VAP and Carolina for Kibera, in Oyugis with SEP and in Kisumu with KYFA.  In Uganda our partners are Straight Talk in Busia, FRO in Pader and Buwate Youth nr. Kampala.  South Africa saw a new partnership with Whizzkids and in Malawi we are working with Play Soccer and Funwefarm before heading back to Tanzania with Kigoma and new work in Geita.  Our year on the fields in Africa finishes in Zambia with Beyond Sport Integrated in Monze and Play Soccer in Lusaka.  Additionally our program has been used by Urban Soccer Collaboration, USA and we are looking at potential programs in Haiti and with Global Special Olympics.  Each partner is carefully selected after completing a rigorous application process.  Each program has a unique set of challenges and our Chance to Choice curriculum is developed to have the flexibility to work for the needs of our partner rather than using a one size fits all approach.

Off the field Coaches across Continents continues to gain global acclaim.  We were invited to Barcelona in March as a finalist in the Global Sports Forum and in September we will be running workshops at the 2010 Beyond Sport Awards in Chicago.  We were awarded a new Global prize of a Connor Sport Court that is shipping to Kigoma for the first ever all weather facility in Tanzania.  Select Gear became a full Hat-Trick partner in Uganda and corporate sponsors began to take notice of the impact our organization was having in communities. Our CSR 2010 that was developed with Accenture Consulting has raised business awareness of the power of sport.

Our business boards added some great leaders with Christian Aviza, Graham Bradford, Andy Old and Ciaran McArdle and we are developing playersacrosscontinents.org and soccermomsacrosscontinents.org to be part of our business development program to help raise new funding sources for our work.  We unveiled our own WISER evaluation system to measure results of our work through sport that will have a major impact in this developing field. And in September we roll out our new brand logo that was designed with grassroots.org and freelogoproject.org to showcase the impact of our Hat-Trick Initiative.

Sport and development is a new way to educate communities and its power was seen in South Africa during World Cup 2010.  Our job as the global leader in this new field is to create awareness of the true value of sport and work with partners in developing communities and businesses and sponsors in developed countries to use the power of education through sport to influence social change.  It’s not enough in 2010 to educate about the facts of HIV, the education has to be about influencing behavioural change.  Female empowerment isn’t just having women play sport but to use that sport to create healthier young woman who have a ‘voice and a choice’.  And our job is to use sport to help communities avoid conflict and show that there are always choices for every decision.  Most importantly, sport gives the chnace to educate in a fun way.  In the past 3 days we have received 4 new partner requests from countries like Botswana, South Africa, India and Ghana and we are are anticipating further controlled growth in 2011.

Already we are turning our attention to 2011 and ensuring that Coaches across Continents is able to provide even more Soccer for Social Development programs.  Behind the scenes our Boards are working tirelessly to build an ’off the field’ system  to support our successful ‘on the field’ programs.  Over the next few weeks we will start with 2011 staff recruitment and organize 2011 program dates and communities.  It’s an exciting time for everyone involved with Coaches across Continents.

All Smiles in Malawi!

Despite being in Africa (South Africa) for nearly two months, it feels like I have finally arrived in what I imagined Africa to look like when I touched down in Blantyre, Malawi.  This country is commonly referred to as “The warm heart of Africa” with good reason.  The people are all very welcoming, extremely kind, and show their great smiles day and night.  They are also for the most part very, very poor with 65% of the country living on less than $1 per day.  It is in these extremely poor communities that Play Soccer Malawi is currently working.  They have three sites just outside Blantyre and in each of these sites they get up to 800 kids per session.  These 800 kids are taught the Play Soccer curriculum by 30 volunteer coaches who never have more than 20 balls between them and a limited number of cones.  Their “pitch” is actually a giant dirt/dust field with rocks scattered about along with some broken glass and random holes.  Did I mention that almost every kid is barefoot?

Soccer Game at Ndirande

Despite what you may be thinking at the moment – I cannot believe how enthusiastic the children are to be playing football and working with Play Soccer.  Started in 2005, Play Soccer had only a few boys and girls.  Now they reach almost 5,000 children, 40% of whom are girls.  The Play Soccer curriculum has three main components: health, social development, and soccer.  Each practice will cover one topic in each of these area.  Some days kids might learn about infectious diseases (Health), teamwork (Social), and soccer and other days may focus on anti-drug messages (Health), solidarity (Social) and soccer.  Their curriculum lasts 48 weeks and their numbers have grown exponentially in the past few years and are expected to continue to do so – if they can continue finding sufficient funding.

Coaches Across Continents is now in the second year of its partnership with Play Soccer Malawi.  That brings me to my job here in Malawi – which is somewhat different than at WhizzKids United where I taught soccer sessions to educate against HIV (click here for last blog!)  This next month Tommy, Phil, and I will be working for one week at each of the Play Soccer sites (Ndirande, Bangwe, and Chigumula).  We will work with their volunteer coaches and provide them some of our ideas, experiences and expertise as professional football coaches and teachers so that hopefully they will improve as coaches and teachers themselves.  By working with their volunteers we ensure that we reach (indirectly) every child that participates with Play Soccer (almost 5,000!) while we are here.

Friendship and Smiles at Bangwe

Another aspect of our work here is also to run sessions with some of the Play Soccer children.  Already we have run several sessions for the children following the Play Soccer curriculum - teaching them life skills along with soccer savvy.  As I mentioned before the amount of energy that exists in the sessions and on the streets watching kids play soccer with small balls made from plastic bags is impressive.  I have no doubt that their enthusiasm and passion for playing far exceeds anything I have seen in the United States on a daily basis.  Some of these kids will be rewarded on Wednesday, August 11th when they are official FIFA ball-boys/girls and accompany the players onto the pitch for the Malawi vs. Botswana full national team game which is also a qualifier for the African Cup of Nations tournament.  A few extremely gifted players will be putting on a juggling demonstration for the 90,000 fans at halftime.  If you check out the game on TV – look for the Play Soccer kids!

Innovative goalposts - removed every night so they aren't taken for firewood!

Our final work task here involves working with Patrick and Abel who run Play Soccer Malawi in order to assist them with fundraising.  At the moment it is difficult for everyone around the world financially – but we are attempting to set up a local fundraising model so that Play Soccer Malawi can become more self-sufficient and sustainable.  With these local funds we hope to be able to purchase more equipment, snacks for the participants, and expand into future communities and reach even more children in the coming year.

August 5th, 2010:  Connor Sport Court, one of Beyond Sport’s Business Support Partners has matched funding from Beyond Sport to develop Tanzania’s first all weather, multi-purpose court. Coaches across Continents, winner of Best New Project 2009, entered a competition to win the free court and convinced the judges that Kigoma, where the organisation has been working for nearly three years, would be a great recipient community for the court.

Kigoma is located at the North Eastern Shore of Lake Tanganyika in Western Tanzania, 1,200 kilometres from Dar es Salaam. The Municipal has an area of 128sq. kilometers and approximately 225,000 inhabitants. Kigoma struggles with early school drop out, with especially high drop out rates for young girls. Kigomaalso struggles with AIDS and HIV, poverty, and lack of employment opportunities.

There is currently no safe and sufficient place for Coaches across Continents to do their work. The only “formal” playing surface in the area is filled with deep holes, strewn with rocks, broken glass and trash, and the ground is uneven and made up of deep sand in parts. The field’s surrounding security wall has been partially demolished allowing animals to frequently roam across the field.

A court from the world’s largest court builder will change all this…watch this space to see the project take shape.

“We would like to thank Beyond Sport and Connor Sport Court for this Award.  In the past two years our coaches have worked with more than 150 local teachers and coaches and more than 15,000 children to start the sport for social development program.  The Municipal in Kigoma and the Sports Officers, Nico and Masari also deserve a great deal of credit for their pioneering work in Tanzania.”  Christian Aviza, Board of Directors, Coaches across Continents.

The court has recently departed the Connor Sport Court factory and will arrive via sea to Dar Es Salaam in early September.

August 5th, 2010: Coach Rich.

After spending a couple of days with Nick, Anna and Sophie we realized how great they are at interacting and coaching the local children. They are all excellent coaches in their own way and there experience really is apparent. On the 6th July, our second day coaching I witnessed a really interesting thing- Sophie (a white coach from Belgium) was coaching, when a little girl, probably 3-5 years old timidly snuck-up behind her and ran her finger down Sophie’s leg, like a smear. She then checked her finger to see if any of the white came off. This was an incredible moment because it really illustrated how few white people (Mzungus) the locals see here in Busia and how much of a novelty we are. Some very young children have never seen a white person before and they look at us with a mixture of amazement, excitement, apprehension and curiosity. As we walked through the town some of the children would eagerly run towards us and want to shake our hands; if we were walking slow enough some of the children would run their hands down our legs or on our arms because they are amazed by the fact we have hair there (I think most Ugandan people do not have a lot of body hair).

The vast majority of people we have met have greeted us with open arms and have been very excited and happy to see us. It was amazing to see young children with almost nothing, being so welcoming, happy and friendly. When they are eating a tiny bit of food like a slice of bread, they would offer some of it to us; when they are playing with their home-made plastic football, they offer it to us if we wanted to play. They are more than willing to share what they have, even though what they have is not even enough for themselves. It really made me think that in the west we have so much, yet most of the time we are relatively reluctant to share it with anyone outside our friends and family

It also made me think more about the perception of Africa in the west. It is incredible that in the west, many people know and are aware that there are many starving and sick people in Africa but ironically it seems as if the advertisements that charities or other organizations are desperately using to secure funding to help people are actually building up westerner’s immunity to this information. So many people know about the disease and poverty that people live with in Africa but nothing can prepare you for seeing it before your very own eyes. You know but cannot fully appreciate the extent that this is occurring in so many places throughout Africa. People are starving, yet they are willing to offer a stranger a portion of their single daily meal. In such desperate circumstances, it is the pinnacle of selflessness and humility that many Uganda people possess that make them such an endearing and likeable population. Even though they are dying because they don’t have food, sanitation or basic medical care, they still welcome outsiders into their community and share with us whatever little they have as if we were a member of their family. I think that this is incredible that they can embrace and welcome us as one of their own, even though in realty they nothing about who we are or what we are doing; this is something that would never happen in the west and maybe it is something that we can learn from our African friends.
After teaching us all that they could in the relatively short period of time that they had, Nick and Sophie left with Steve and Ivan to travel to the Pader district in the north of Uganda to run another Coaches Across Continents program. This left me, JB and Anna to start the program here in Busia. The program works in conjunction with a charity called “Straight Talk” which is an organization that looks to work with younger students in school and promote intellectual and sensitizing discussions on relevant topics such as HIV prevention and female empowerment. The program in Busia works in conjunction with 16 different schools in the local area (although there are over 230 schools in the Busia district alone!) and we visit each school 5 times, covering 5 differentially relevant unit topics, cumulating as a total of 80 sessions.

The first unit that we implemented in the schools was “health and wellness” as this is a particularly relevant unit here in Uganda. With an average life expectancy of only 45 years, it is needless to say that the health care and standard of living here is below adequate for most people. It would be very easy to mention one or two generic causes of such a low life expectancy that effect almost every other 3rd world country, but in reality the situation here is much more complicated; there are a plethora of factors that contribute to so many deaths at a stage of life that we in the west would only consider middle-age. Situational features such as malnutrition, inadequate sanitation and little access to safe drinking water leads to the rapid spread of disease and with scarce and expensive health care- many diseases often go untreated with helpless patients just “hoping for the best.” The problem is that the diseases that their bodies are fighting are not just mild ailments such as a cough or a runny nose; diseases such as malaria, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis and especially HIV/AIDS are widespread within the Busia community. The exact extent to which these diseases are affecting the community is difficult to estimate because only a select minority of those who are ill can afford to seek medical care and thus provide medical records and data.

Other, less obvious factors such as day-to-day chores also contribute to the worsening of health. The lack of electricity means that most families are forced to cook their meals over a charcoal stove; this is a popular form of fuel because it is cheap, energy-rich and readily available. However, coal is one of the dirtiest and polluting sources of fuel with families (usually women and young girls) preparing meals 2-3 times a day over a large charcoal stove- the fumes that they inhale over a sustained period of time is severely detrimental to their general health. The lack of running water for most families means that children will daily have to fetch water from the few wells that are dotted around the town; young children often carrying gallons of unsafe water for hundreds of meters leaving them perpetually exhausted.

It is amazing to think that many traditional and cultural practices are also largely contributing to poverty and decreased level of health, not only here in Busia, but in Uganda and many other Africa countries alike. In Uganda, men are not considered “real” men if they only have a few children-to prove that they are “real” men they must have 5-10 children with sometime more than one wife. This is an absurd tradition as the parents have little foresight; if they do not have the resources to support 2 or 3 children, they definitely do not have the resources to support 10 or more. With the father traditionally out working all day with the mother forced to stay home and do house chores, the children are often left to their own devices, with the older children admirably parenting their younger siblings. Combine this with other house chores and having to go to school often for 9 (yes I said 9!) or more hours a day- that is not something that we would consider a child-hood. Yet still, this traditional or cultural practice still mindlessly continues, largely unexamined because that’s what their parents did and their parents before them. Until someone breaks the cycle and questions the system by becoming more rational and educated, that is the way it will always be.

Due to the decreased level of health in the Busia community, Coaches Across Continents were keen to address this issue as part of our uniquely devised program in the area. We were eager to stress the importance of being healthy and active to fight against diseases and also to help out with the family; be that carrying water for the family or caring for their younger siblings, we were actively teaching them about the importance of being active and healthy so that their bodies can be strong and make their day-to-day lives much easier. We used Ronaldo as a role model of being healthy, committed and hard-working as he is the best footballer in the world because he works hard every day and because of this, he is very healthy and strong and powerful.

The unit was very successful as we played circle of friends with Ronaldo skills, Ronaldo agility and then played Ronaldo tag. It was a physically demanding session but the kids were great and cooperative and it showed them that they had to work hard to be healthy and strong. I think that they were so obliging, because for 90 minutes are more, the kids were free; they forgot their troubles and were allowed to be kids. The happiness that could be gleaned from simple interactions using football as a bridging medium was breathtaking. Even though the program appears to be making a significantly positive impact on the schools and community, at the very least the Coaches Across Continents program is providing an educationally enlightening session were the children can be themselves. Thanks again, please stay tuned for more stories coming soon.

August 4th, 2010:  Beyond Training: from ‘smart’ objectives to WISER outcomes. A necessary paradigm shift to achieve success in developing countries.

In a known and predictable world rational solutions can be planned, for training as for anything else. A training programme based on the concept of the transferability of skills can be organised and implemented so that coaches acquire the skills they are thought to need in order to achieve pre-determined, often narrow, ‘smart’ objectives.  (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). However, such a training approach takes little account of idiosyncratic local needs, perspectives and opportunities and can’t cope with a world of uncertainty or a high degree of complexity. It is ‘a one size fits all’ approach, which, paradoxically, may be a misfit everywhere. 

 Coaches across Continents works in complex, challenging and constantly changing environments which demand a significant degree of knowledge, analysis, judgment and flexibility in order to meet the context specific requirements of every unique situation. Accordingly Coaches across Continents goes beyond training and ‘educates’ coaches to make appropriate choices in their use of the Coaches across Continent’s curriculum in their work in significantly varying situations. Using a cascade model of development in order to optimize programme sustainability, these coaches then educate locally based coaches to similarly utilise this unique and effective curriculum. 

 Wisdom is the power of judging rightly. Without wisdom success is impossible in situations which are complex and ever changing.  Therefore the evaluation model of Coaches across Continents has of necessity evolved beyond the simplistic and potentially ineffective concept of ‘smart’ objectives to evaluation based on WISER outcomes.

Coaches, both international and local, are required to evaluate their programmes based on the following WISER criteria:

 W

Was the programme ‘workable’? How did it take account of and respond to the specific reality and needs of the unique context?

a)      What was unique about the context?

b)      What particular needs were identified?

c)      What were chosen as local priorities and why?

d)     How were these priorities met?

I

Was the curriculum utilized ‘intelligently’, with thought being given to the relevance of a wide range of ideas and factors?

a)      What alternative ideas and approaches were considered?

b)      How were activities selected appropriately to match identified local needs? 

c)      How was the curriculum responsive to ongoing learning and emerging issues?

S

Was the programme and curriculum ‘situated’ within the network of local relationships within the community?

a)      How did the curriculum align with local partners and build on existing programmes?

b)      How did the programme build relationships and gain credibility within the community?

c)      How did the programme add value to the community?

E

Were the coaches willing to ‘experiment’ appropriately, to try out new ways and formulate new aims, in response to newly clarified or identified local needs.

a)      What local needs were newly identified or clarified?

b)      What new or variant activities, games or approaches were introduced to meet these needs?

c)      What new aims emerged as a result of these experiments?

R

What ‘results’ were achieved, both quantitative and qualitative?

a)      What criteria was used to measure or judge success?

b)      How many people attended the programme? Did the attendance increase or drop off throughout the programme?

c)      What was the evidence of community interest in the programme?

d)     What was the evidence of learning by participants and within the community as a result of the programme?

e)      What was the evidence of sustainability of the programme?

By seeing the limitation of the ‘smart’ objectives’ way of understanding things, Coaches across Continents is moving beyond simplistic training methods and superficial numerical evaluation. In grasping the nettle of ‘WISER’ outcomes, Coaches across Continents is at the forefront of evaluation that honours complexity, speaks to the uniqueness of local contexts, builds on emerging strengths, enhances sustainability and empowers coaches to move from chance to informed choices in their work within communities.

“We have been working on a ‘monitoring and evaluation’ method for over two years that works best with sport for social development and specifically with the flexible nature of our Hat-Trick Initiatives.  We’d like to thank all our coaches in the field, our partner programs, iFc 1966 and the members of our Boards who have worked on this project. The WISER model continues our work as a leader in sport for social development ”  Nick Gates, Global Strategist

July 27th, 2010:  The English Soccer season is upon us and we are delighted to launch our first ever fantasy football league.  To join our league and have fun throughout the soccer season, simply click http://www.firstgiving.com/fantasysoccer and follow the instructions.

Coaches across Continents was proud to have had former England coach Sir Bobby Robson as a keen supporter of our programs and we are delighted that the winner of our fantasy league will receive a Sir Bobby Robson Memorial soccer shirt and scarf.

Coaches across Continents runs programs in 6 African countries in 2010 and was the winner of Beyond Sport Global Award for Best New Project in 2009.

Any donations made to join the fantasy soccer league will be used by Coaches across Continents for our programs in Africa and by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation to fight cancer.

July 26th by Coach Brian:  KwaZulu-Natal is a province of ten million people located in the eastern portion of South Africa and home to the well-known city of Durban.  The Umgungundlovu District is an area within KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) which houses the provincial capital city of Pietermaritzburg and the township of Edendale.  The Umgungundlovu District, KwaZulu-Natal, and South Africa are home to some staggering statistics when it comes to HIV and AIDS.

• 39.1% of people aged 15-49 in KwaZulu-Natal have HIV.
• 45.7% of pregnant women aged 15-49 in Umgungundlovu District are HIV positive.
• South Africa has an HIV-prevalence rate of 16.9% (ages 15-49) and 10.9% over all age groups.
• South Africa has 5.7 million citizens infected with HIV (the most worldwide).*

In short, the Umgungundlovu District and KwaZulu-Natal province is the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS crisis, both in South Africa and globally.

What Will The Future Hold For These South Africans?

This year Coaches Across Continents has partnered up with local NGO WhizzKids United (WKU).  For the past month I have been working in KZN, fully integrated into WKU’s curriculum.  Formed in 2005, WhizzKids United provided a revolutionary new approach to HIV prevention, one that uses football as an analogy to teach life skills to young people.  The target audience focuses on 11-16 year olds in the hope that they can educate, form behaviors, and create social norms that will lead to healthy decisions and will keep these individuals HIV free for their entire lives.  They also aim to prevent any future spread of HIV for positive-testing individuals.  WKU has three main pillars of their curriculum and have piloted these three programs in the township of Edendale (Umgungundlovu District).  These are their Life Skills Program, Peer Education Program, and Health Academies.

Life Skills Program, Clarence Primary School

My primary role in working with WKU is teaching their Life Skills Program.  This is a 16-hour program that draws analogies between football and life.  Using football games during the lessons makes the learning both fun and interactive.  Children come away from the course empowered with the knowledge, self-efficacy and skills they need to practice healthy behavior.  The Life Skills Program meets the requirements of the nationally mandated Life Orientation curriculum and is provided at primary and secondary schools during grades 5 to 7.  I have been working at Clarence Primary School in KZN.  We are approximately halfway through the course and currently the kids are learning about how HIV operates, how it leads to AIDS, and what they can do to ensure that they remain HIV negative.  The ABCs of remaining HIV negative are Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Condomise.  Even though the children I have been working with are only in grade 5 (most are around 11 years old), I believe they have a far superior understanding regarding HIV and sexually transmitted diseases than their American or European counterparts.  I just hope that this understanding leads to better life decisions down the road for them and for all of South Africa.

Coach Brian Using Soccer to Teach Life Lessons, Clarence Primary School

The second pillar of WKUs curriculum is their Peer Education Program.  They identify strong peer leaders during the Life Skills program and train them to be Peer Educators with an additional 10-hour course.  These Peer Educators then run a 12-hour course for their classmates.  This allows them to reinforce the Life Skills lessons and facilitate discussions which can positively influence peer group norms.  Outside the classroom, Peer Educators also serve as an approachable front-line source of help for troubled youth who might be too intimidated to go to an authority figure.

WKU's Health Academy provides a place for kids to go to learn about HIV and have fun!

I have also been spending some time at the Edendale Health Academy (opened June, 2010) which is WKU’s third and potentially biggest initiative to combat HIV.  The concept behind their Health Academies is to serve an exclusively adolescent patient population with vital clinical services such as HIV testing, counselling, treatment and management of sexually transmitted diseases, administration and management of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, and psycho-social support groups for kids living with HIV/AIDS.  The staff is fully qualified and received additional training to meet the needs of adolescents.  It also features a football pitch (currently a pavement area until the government paperwork is processed) and in the future will house a computer resource centre.  Long term the Edendale Health Academy will offer other services such as football leagues, homework clubs, career guidance, and educational videos.  The goal is to have WKU Health Academies throughout South Africa in the near future and to make them as youth-friendly as possible which will increase the number of kids willing to access their life-saving health services.  In my work at the Edendale Health Academy the thing I liked best was that it was for kids only.  No adults!  We were free to play lots of games, educate them through games about HIV, and they were able to access qualified nurses and counselors.  Although it is only in their first few months of operation, when I was there it was used by nearly 100 kids one day.  Hopefully this first academy is very successful and that they are able to expand throughout South Africa.

Life Skills Program World Cup Tournament, Edendale 2010

My work with WhizzKids United is coming to an end this week and I would like to provide a few thoughts about my time here.  The scope of the HIV problem in KZN and South Africa is astonishing and could be disheartening.  It is not a problem that can be solved overnight or even in a few years.  It will take an entire generation for the statistics to change dramatically.  However WKU is rolling up their sleeves and trying to attack the problem head-on, focusing on that next generation of soon to be adults.  I believe that in my short time working with WKU that I have helped to reach potentially hundreds of youths – and perhaps they are a bit more educated about HIV and their future behaviors will keep them safe and healthy.  That is the only way to reach the final goal – which is to have an HIV-free generation in the future, in the Umgungundlovu District, the KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, and the world as a whole.

What Will The Future Hold For These South Africans?

World Cup Style Tournament in the Lamontville township

Hanging with the kids at Edendale Health Academy

July 26th, 2010:  The Select Gear donation of uniforms has arrived at our partner program in Kigoma, Tanzania with the help of Passback and Eurosport who helped in the delivery of 6 boxes of uniforms.

The Kigoma Program was our first Hat-Trick Initiative program.  Coach Nico in Kigoma contacted Coaches across Continents in 2008 and in July of that year we ran Year 1 of the program.

The program helped Coaches across Continents win the prestigious Beyond Sport Global Award in 2009.

“We would like to thank Select Gear, Passback and Eurosport for their wonderful donation to our program.  Our teachers are working hard in our schools using the Coaches across Continents curriculum.  During the presentation of the jerseys also we invite the TV journalist in order to advertise you organization to all Tanzania. You can see one of the picture I have got interview from STAR TV.”  Coach Nico

In September, Coaches Brian and Tracy will be joining Coach Nico in Kigoma for the final year of our partnership, a successful partnership that will have trained more than 150 teachers to use soccer for social development.

July 20th, 2010: 

Ciaran joined our Business Advisory Board on July 1st, 2010 and brings with him a wealth of experience both in soccer coaching and in the world of soccer business.

Ciaran began his career as a summer coach with PLAY SOCCER New England in 1996 and joined full time in 1998.  By 1999 he was the National Director for Coaching.

In 2001, Ciaran chose to build his own successful business when he started www.xlsoccertours.com, an organization that provides top level soccer tours to the UK, Spain, Sweden, Itally, Holland and Brasil.  In 2008, XL Soccer Tours became an official partner to Coaches across Continents and assisted with the first Hat-Trick Initiative in Kigoma, Tanzania.

“I’m excited to be part of this unique challenge to use soccer for social development.  Coaches across Continents is providing a program that is changing lives in communities around the world and I’m looking forward to working with the Boards to build a sustainable foundation for future business development.”

Ciaran will also be putting on his coaching gear on the fields in Africa in 2011.

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