FCSA: Bayer 04 gets involved in Mexico

Christoph Binot from Bayer 04, involved in education as an instructor for a number of years, learned a lot in the Young Coach education programme in Mexico and is convinced by the relevance of the project: "I've seen some things with projects but what I've never seen was the situation as it is here on the border to Guatemala. The influx of refugees makes the job of the Young Coaches here very important as they are now better able to integrate refugees through sport."

From 6 to 10 February 2020, Binot travelled to Tapachula, a border town in the south of the country, alongside other FCSA instructors (Tobias Süveges of Werder Bremen, Robert Urbanek (FK Austria Vienna), Tom Albrecht and Sven Klahsen, both at Schalke 04 ) for the third and final course of the Young Coach training in Mexico.

Over 40 Young Coaches trained

The refugee situation in Mexico is marked by extreme violence and poverty. In addition, political instability and a lack of life prospects in El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala and Nicaragua has forced hundreds of thousands to flee. The FCSA is looking to work to counter this growing potential conflict and and xenophobia. In cooperation with local major partners, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Refugee Education Trust (RET), over 40 young adults have been trained as certificated Young Coaches and leaders. "I believe they are all very motivated to take the certificate in their hands and maintain other sporting and social programmes using a relationship to football," said Binot after his time in South America.

While the first two modules focused on the fundamentals of children's football and the production of relevant educational games, the focus of the third module was clearly on the promotion of the leadership and social skills of the Young Coaches. Together with the instructors and the Scort team, they came together in workshops to establish how to set and address clear targets, how to apply for financial and material support for their activities and how to convince concerned parents about their activities.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR led workshops on the issues of child protection, sexual and gender-specific violence as well as protection against sexual exploitation and abuse. That enables the Young Coaches to react better to potential problems in their own areas and in the surroundings of the children and to be able to offer them educationally suitable support.

A great step forward was also made on the football front: With a tournament involving 100 children aged 6 to 12, the Young Coaches were able to extend their knowledge in the area of disabled football. They were able to use that directly in the awards festival: Over 30 children with hearing, sight and/or a mental disability took part in the festival and were able to learn a lot from the Young Coaches.

At the moment, over 7,700 children are benefiting from the activities of the Young Coaches and their peers.