Sports Development and Coaching

About The Placement

This placements offers a varying level of involvement depending on your previous experience and enthusiasm. We are currently providing placements in the following areas:

• Physical Education Teacher - Get involved with running sports and PE classes with either a set or varied age range. Ghana is football mad but if you have a passion for another sport the children will be more than willing to try out any new game that is explained! (Who knows we might have the next sports star in the making here). Depending on the size of the school in which you are allocated and how many classes we agree to run you may get time to assist/run classroom focused lessons in other academic subjects throughout the day.
  
• Football Academy Support - We have established our own children's sports academy where we provide scholarships to enthusiastic youth in the local area of Abetifi. Usually in Ghana when a child attends a football academy, the family has the financial burden of paying the fees to cover coaching salary, logistics, equipment etc. Through our donations and fundraising with our volunteers we provide places in our academy completely free of charge for the children so there is no restrictions due to their financial situation. We try to cover the salary for the coach, all the kit and equipment, drinking water, medical insurance, transport to tournament and matches as well as start of term parties and team bonding days. For volunteers that spend longer than a couple of weeks with us, we would also assign you to welfare checks on our academy children where we would review their home situation to see if there is any assistance we can offer and most importantly school attendance checks where we would check their attendance at school for the term - as a high attendanc score at school is one of our criterias for receiving our scholarships and being able to join the team free of charge.
  
• After School Sports Clubs - Once the children return home and finish their chores such as fetching the water for the family there are no activities or hobbies for them to engage in, leaving them often to walk around town on an evening. If you have the enthusiasm and determination then you can assist in establishing a local sports club for the local children to join and channel all their energy. This project is advised for people with mid-long term stays and with high energy levels as you will often run this along side a main volunteering placement during normal school hours.
  

Why This Placement?

Schools in Ghana not only need your help to cope with the growing size of classes, lack of a 'subsitute' teacher process but also to bring a fresh approach to lessons which are traditionally very dictation focused. Physical Education is not common in the majority of schools, they often have school football teams for example but nothing to include the whole class/school.
We aim to improve on the standard of physical education for the youth to maintain physical fitness, improve concentration during school hours as well as skill and motor skill development to name just a few.
At the academy, we only have the funding to cover one coach that has to balance and take responsbility for a large number of children - if you chose to assist at the academy you will be running as a coaching assistant where you will take groups of children to run drills and training sessions - no experience is needed and our resident coach will show you various activities as well as weekly plans throughout your stay.

What Is Included In This Placement?

Support Staff - Accommodation - House Utility Bills - Pre Departure Support

We charge cost price for this project just so we can cover your stay and employ local support staff to increase loyal employment. This placement includes accommodation in a modern style house for the semi rural area of which we are based with great views and surroundings of the local towns and rainforest. All house utilities are included for your time, you will have use of the kitchen, electricity throughout the house and running water which is a luxury among the area of Kwahu. You will have a member of our local support team living in house or close by depending on the volunteer numbers so there is always someone on hand for any questions or support you may need.

How Do I Get To The Placement?

Budget an additional 10 - 40 Ghana cedis per day for transport costs.

We work with a number of schools within the local community and slightly further out. Volunteers will usually take taxis back and forth to their placement site. It is very easy to take shared taxis in town and they are very reasonably priced. Most of our schools will require volunteers to pay transport between 5 cedis and 40 cedis a day, with the average being about 10cedis. The more remote village schools are usually located down tracks and therefore cost a little bit more to reach. Our team will be able to assist volunteers group together for transport and where to find taxis etc. Volunteers are usually able to head off into the town after school easily to shop for food supplies, grab a cold drink or meet up with friends before heading home and the ease of taxis offer a really flexible experience for the volunteers.

What Will I Be Doing?

• Physical Education Teacher - Working alongside the teaching staff you will arrange a schedule to fit inside their current curriculum where you will be able to take various classes out for PE lessons on the school field. Supplies are often lacking so thinking outside the box is often crucial. Classroom theory sessions can also be ran depending on your qualifications and/or experience.
• After School Clubs - Depending on your own level of independence you could be placed in a teaching placement throughout the day and then for a couple of hours in the afternoon/evening run a sports club in a park for the local children. Previous clubs setup have been linked to a volunteer's teaching placement who they have invited along after hours as well as organising a different sport/game each day for the children in the town of the volunteer accommodation. 
• Football Academy - With this placement you will work alongside our coach and coordinators, together you will draw up a plan on how you can best input into the team, it's development and your personal enhancement at the same time. Most commonly you would help the coach to split the teams into various age or ability groups and then run smaller activities, drills and training activities so that the children gain as big an impact as possible. Previous volunteers have often preferred to tie this in with our another placement so that they are kept busy during the daytime hours but we can help create a personalised timetable with you upon your arrival.
  

Who Will I Be Working With?

If the number permits we aim to group volunteers together at a particular school or project. You will work closely with a teacher and report to the Headteacher when placed in the schools should you have any issues. When visiting the academy you will be dealing with our coach on site. A member of our team will also spend a portion of their day at the project to assist in anyway and offer any guidance should it be needed. Most volunteers strike up a strong bond with the teachers and are treat as another member of staff as if you were always there. It is not uncommon to be invited round their homes for dinner at an early stage as a way of saying thank you.

What Do We Expect From The Volunteers?

Sports or coaching qualifications/experience is not compulsory for this placement, your level of experience and confidence will gauge what level of students would best suit and will be discussed between the team and yourself on your first day introduction. The greatest traits of a volunteer are enthusiasm, empathetic and the ability to adjust to alternative cultures. You will get the most of our your trip by opening your mind to new experiences and beliefs whilst also bringing your own to the table.
We expect volunteers to visit their placements Monday - Friday, exceptions can be made for long weekends of travel etc but we hope for the children and yourselves to get the most of your placement this is kept to a minimum.

What Can You Expect From Us?

We will be on hand any time of any day to support you in your placement and trip as a whole. There will always be someone you can speak to or get a hold of should you want to discuss anything or require any guidance, from organising after school clubs to changing your placement. Our team living in the volunteer house will also be able to offer advice regarding travel plans and the local area so you will soon feel at home.

What Should I Bring?

Regarding your placement we advise bringing any sports or coaching equipment you can as these items are not available in our local area and only cheap children's footballs and used football boots can be found at the markets.

What Happens During School Holidays?

During school holidays if a volunteers placement falls within these dates then we can arrange either a holiday school depending on the number of volunteers or we can run sports clubs and competitions for the local children at one of the fields in town.
The school holidays usually fall three times a year; few weeks around easter, few weeks around August and a few weeks during December.

• 07:30am - Volunteer transport leaves the volunteer house to project sites
• 08:00am - School starts
• 10:30am - 11:00am - Morning Break
• 12:30pm - 01:00pm - Lunch Break
• 03:00pm - School closes
• 03:30pm - Return to volunteer house
• 03:00pm onwards - Free time / Potential after school clubs / Visiting football academy
  

Please note this an example of a schedule. Times vary on different schools and term time.


After school volunteers are free to go shopping in the local markets, return to the volunteer house or visit the local swimming pools.

Mid Week Free Time
After school and evenings offer these local opportunities around the local area:

• Hiking / Trekking
• Swimming
• Sightseeing (Waterfalls and breathtaking scenery)
• After school & Homework Clubs
• Sports facilities
• Live Music
• Plenty of Nightlife
• Restaurants & Hotels providing western cuisine
  

Weekend Free Time
Most volunteers will travel at weekends, across Ghana we have many amazing experiences which you can discover. Here are just a few ideas:

• Safari
• Museums
• Slave Castles
• Canopy Walk
• Waterfalls
• Malls and Cinemas (Showing latest films)
• Beautiful Beaches
• Surfing

We are on hand to offer any advice that you might need.