its all about the training...

pierre shares some info on the detailed training document

we are in the middle of our winter school holiday season at the moment and for our sports outreach team this is normally a time for some much needed rest. however this year we wanted to make the most of the time that we have with our sports mentors, who are all very enthusiastic young people who are still in school, so this was the ideal time to 'up skill' them with some new training and ideas around how we deliver our programme and engage with the local children who attend our daily clubs

some of the team in their new jersey kits and boots!

since starting our sports outreach in 2008 we have based our programmes around the already existing ubabalo soccer programme, which was created for the 2010 world cup, with some tweaks by our volunteers and dutch students over the last few years, however more recently we have been building great relationships with one of the guys who created the original ubabalo sports programme.

therefore it was a true blessing to have pierre and three of his team come up and join us at the elgin country club, which provided a splendid backdrop, to the two days of training and giving us new material which will hone our outreach to the 250 or so children who attend our clubs.

it was all a little daunting for our sports mentors who were encouraged to show off their existing skills on the soccer pitch and deliver a new training session, which we had prepared in the classroom via some team building and interactive video, to the group whilst receiving some 360 degree feed back on the things they did well and those things that they perhaps needed to work on, but they

it was a time for them to bond together as a team, have fun and receive some goodies which we had been saving up for such a time as this. we must thank franny black for the tracksuits which we gave out on the second day as well as lance and travis who will be delighted to know that the soccer boots which they bought over from canada were so well received by the mentors.....thanks guys.