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 2nd, 2010

Coaches across Continents have accepted a unique challenge in partnering with Straight Talk, which works with adolescents in the community to talk about issues like HIV/AIDS, early pregnancy and marriage, and sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation is a big problem in Busia, since it is a border town and has a very transient population. Many women and girls in Busia are sex workers – some by choice and some by force. The head of Straight Talk in the region is an amazing young man named Bashir, who has basically committed his life to the welfare of the young people in Busia.

The broad objective of STF is to contribute to the improved mental, social and physical development of Ugandan adolescents (10-19) and young adults (20-24). The programme also aims to keep its audience safe from HIV/STD infection and early pregnancy and to manage challenging circumstances such as conflict and deprivation.

More specifically, Straight Talk Foundation aims, through its communications projects, to increase the understanding of adolescence, sexuality and reproductive health, and to promote the adoption of safer sex practices. The foundation also aims at helping adolescents acquire the necessary life skills and grasp of child and human rights to make the passage through adolescence safely.

Coaches Anna, Grace, JB and Rich are using the partnership and soccer to work with teenagers and teachers in 16 schools in the region to reinforce the Straight Talk messages.  All four coaches  have worked hard to adapt to the needs of Busia, a town with a high percentage of sex workers, HIV and teen pregnancy.

Each day our program works with 2 schools and over the course of the 8 weeks, each school receives 5 new sessions that deal with issues like health and wellness, female empowerment, HIV, conflict resolution and fun. This is the first time that the schools in Busia have used sport for social development and the District Education Officer sent a letter to all local schools requesting that they all take part.  There has been a fantastic response from headmasters and teachers to ensure the success of this new program and often our coaches work with 150 children while another 200 watch and learn from the sidelines.

“Most governments, countries and communities do not understand how sport for social development should be part of all educational programs.  The Straight Talk program have embraced the power of football for change and thousands of children in their program are now having fun while they learn.  It is certainly a challenging program for our coaches as they work with thousands of children but this type of outreach will have a sustainable impact on a community desperate for behavioural change in their young people”  Coach Anna.

Check out stories from our coaches in Uganda at our Coaches Blogs

June 29th, 2010.

Thanks to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, Coaches across Continents was able to supply football shirts to four programs in Kenya and one in Uganda.

The shirts were collected from the memorial at St James’s Park and Sir Bobby’s wife contacted Coaches across Continents to ask whether we could give the shirts to new local coaches, community leaders and children at our programs.  Sir Bobby was a big spokesperson for Coaches across Continents and listened with enthusiasm to the stories of how football was used for social development.

We were delighted to have been chosen by the Foundation to receive the shirts and to be able to distribute them in Africa.  Local coaches who trained with our program in Eastlands, Kibera, Oyugis, Kisumu and PaderTown received the shirts upon completion of training in coaching football for life skills for children.  The shirts will help coaches work with more than 20,000 children.

More than 50 local coaches in Kisumu, Kenya trained with Coaches across Continents for 50 hours, learning new games and new styles for teaching children. 

“Being able to give the local coaches a football shirt at the end of the training was an amazing gesture.  To see the pride in their faces as they put on the shirts that were donated by fans all over England and then to hear the story of one of Englands’ greatest ever coaches gave all the local volunteers even more enthusiasm to go out and influence the lives of the children in the community.  The spirit of Sir Bobby is still playing on the fields in Africa”   Coach Anna.

Coaches across Continents programs are on going in July in Uganda and South Africa and later this year in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.

Check out: http://coachesacrosscontinents.com/Coaches/index_E.html for some great stories from our coaches in the field.

May 2nd, 2010.

Our Coaches Andy, Anna, Graham and Nick have just finished a 10 day, 30 hour course with 51 young coaches with the SEP project in Oyugis, Kenya.

SEP is the brainchild of Festus Juma and the organization uses football, agriculture and education to enhance the community.  Young players are given seed and fertilizer to grow maize, mangoes, beans, and avocado on their family land and any produce that was surplus is sold at market and the funds must be used to pay for school fees.  It is an outstanding project.

Festus identified that there was a great need for coaching standards to improve and we set about empowering the young people.  On day one we started our new Football For Female Empowerment Junior Coach program and worked with 27 novice teenagers.  It was an unbelievably successful program where the differences and standards on day ten compared to day one were so obvious.  Our coaches gave these young women, ‘a voice and a choice’.

On Day 10, 51 coaches received their certificates and Sir Bobby Robson Foundation shirts and our coaches departed from this incredibly poor rural community knowing that our work had made a huge difference to this FIFA Football for Hope sponsored program.

Congratulations to all members of SEP who worked their socks off to use our time to the fullest.

See some photos of the Certificate Day at:

SEP 2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2450845&id=2721362&l=a869697423

Coaches Name:  Andy Old

Home Town:  Philadelphia, PA…..and Hetton, UK

Playing Experience:  Sunderland Academy, Preston North End YTS, Harvard University.

Funniest Moment on a Soccer Field:  Every time I kick with my left foot.

Coaching Experience:  7 year summer Director of Coaching at PLAY SOCCER Camps

Favorite Movie:  Love Story

Favorite Song:  While my Guitar Gently Weeps by the Beatles

Favorite Team:  Sunderland

Who will win the World Cup?  Is this a trick question?…..England will win the World Cup and they will beat the USA 4 v 0 in the group stages.

Hopes/Thoughts about working in Africa: 

I’m working with two programs in Kenya.

1.  VAP works in areas of Nairobi that have some of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infected and affected youth in Kenya’s capital. Many of the youths come from ‘families’ living in extreme poverty who may have lost one or both parents to the disease.

2.  Based in western Kenya, Society Empowerment Project (SEP) is providing hope to a region ravaged by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. With Kenya’s highest rate of infection, the Nyanza Province faces high child and adult mortality, large number of AIDS orphans and poor educational opportunities. In this context, a group of volunteers from Oyugis founded SEP in 2004 to give back to their community. Using football to attract young people, SEP provides life skills, sports leadership and management training. In addition, it works closely with AIDS awareness and treatment groups and local schools to provide young people with training to reduce the level of infection.

It is a fantastic opportunity for me to combine my two great passions; soccer and medicine and I can’t wait to get to Kenya in April.

February 3rd, 2010.

We are delighted to announce a 3rd partnership in Kenya with Carolina for Kibera.  It is a unique opportunity for Coaches across Continents to work with an established organization that works on many levels of social development.

Run by Kenyans and advised by American and Kenyan volunteers, CFK’s primary mission is to promote youth leadership and ethnic and gender cooperation in Kibera through sports, young women’s empowerment, and community development.

The CFK Sports Program uses soccer as a tool to engage the youth of Kibera to reduce ethnic tension and violence, promote peace, and teach conflict management, community service, and health lifestyle choices.

CFK works with approximately 3300 boys and 420 girls – for a total of 255 teams.  Each team has a coach, although some coach more than one team.

The CFK Sports Program is designed to promote ethnic cooperation, conflict resolution, and community service. Additionally, we have widened our programming to include trainings off the field on topic such as – HIV/AIDS awareness, drug abuse, poverty, financial literacy, reproductive health, and boy/girl relationships.

“CFK is a an organization that has established itself in one of the most challenging areas in Nairobi.  We are looking forward to learning and sharing with the teachers and volunteers of Kibera and to helping them build their sport for social development program”  Sara Noonan, Business Advisory Board.

January 13th, 2010.

Members of our Business and Coach Advisory Boards head to Philadelphia today for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America  Convention.  The NSCAA is the largest coaching organization in America with more than 30,000 members.

The Convention also brings together more than 250 soccer manufacturers to launch their 2010 ranges of soccer equipment and apparel.  Coaches across Continents staff have scheduled meetings with a number of organizations who are interested in growing their social responsibility programs through our work in Soccer for Social Development.

“The NSCAA is a truly global event with coaches and corporations from all around the world.  The convention provides us with the opportunity to talk with our existing corporate partners, discuss opportunities with potential corporate partners and to meet with current and new volunteer coaches, all within a two day period. “  Nick Gates, Global Strategist.

November 25th, 2009.  

We are delighted to have been selected by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation to receive shirts and scarves from the more than 4,500 that were left by friends and fans of Sir Bobby Robson at St James’s Park. 

Sir Bobby was a great supporter of Coaches across Continents and listened with interest and enthusiasm about our projects with coaches and children around the world.  He also encouraged governments, businesses, the football community and individuals to get involved with Coaches across Continents and help use football to change lives in developing communities.

Working with the RAF to transport the shirts, we have chosen two of our programs in Kenya to receive this great donation.     The programs will use the shirts to further develop their Football for Social Development programs to help children learn health, life and leadership skills. 

“We would like to thank the foundation, Sir Bobby’s family and all the football fans who donated their shirts.  They will be used to change lives of boys and girls in developing communities in Kenya.  They will allow more children to play and get education that will change their lives.”  Nick Gates, Global Strategist.