85 Young Coaches in Rwanda

Last November, instructors from the Football Club Social Alliance (FCSA) travelled to Rwanda  for the first time to train young refugees from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be football coaches for child refugees. The one-year Young Coach course has been completed and 85 women and men awarded with their coaching certificates. The proud graduates will now able to offer thousands of children football activities and educational games and provide support in avoiding violence and drug problems in the refugee camps, reducing stress and help with dealing with traumas.

In the final module of the training course, the FCSA instructors worked on fine-tuning the organisational skills and the coaching prowess of the Young Coaches. Finally, they passed on how to share their knowledge with other young refugees at their camps to train them to be coaches and mentors to make it possible to reach the maximum number of children in need.

Thorsten Judt and Jörg Kappenhagen from Bayer 04 supported the Young Coaches during the third and final module of the training course in Rwanda and they were very impressed with their thirst for knowledge. "It's great to see how keen the Young Coaches are to absorb knowledge and develop," declared Jörg Kappenhagen. "I can also see that us as instructors from Bayer 04 and the other FCSA clubs are perceived to be big role models."

For Thorsten Judt it was a very intense experience working with the Scort Foundation and the other FCSA clubs in Rwanda in training the young refugees to be coaches. "The Young Coaches are very willing to learn and very enthusiastic in their work. The visits to the refugee camps, where the Young Coaches held training sessions for 200 children at a time, were very impressive. You learn to value humility and gratitude again. I'm proud of taking part and being able to help."

The Young Coach training in Rwanda with 85 graduates is the most comprehensive project to date for the FCSA and that required the commitment of all six FCSA clubs (FC Basel, SV Werder Bremen, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, FK Austria Vienna, FC Schalke 04 and FSV Mainz 05), Scort and UNHCR  to prepare the large number of Young Coaches for their demanding challenges in the training camps.

The joint effort was worth it and is already having a great effect in the camps. The Young Coaches have already motivated over 160 refugees and taught them to act as coaches and mentors for the children. Together they organise regular football activities for over 4,000 children in need that not only enables them to have fun with other children but also protects them against drugs and violence in the camps.