Our Last Month of CBF Work

I’ve noticed that I completely failed to keep my blog up to date in the last month of my trip. I suppose it’s a testament to how busy I was at the time. The last 4 weeks absolutely flew by and I’m now sat at home with all the luxuries I could ask for. There's light at the flick of a switch, internet at full speed, a power shower with hot water and all the foods that I missed are in the fridge. I’ve started to question whether I actually need all this after being taken away from it for 3 months it really doesn’t seem all that important.

Anyway before I get all deep and reflectional on the trip I’ll quickly fill you in on the last month and what we’ve all been up to. So, work wise everything started getting busy. We were organising a capacity building session for team managers and coaches on computer skills. This is something not many of them know about so we thought it would be important for them to at least know the basics of some of the programmes. I led a session on Microsoft Word and put together a handout with some information on and came up with a few tasks for them to do. Obviously we knew that not everyone would have computers so we chose a location that actually had a couple to practice on and took our laptops for extras. We also managed to hook up a projector which we got from the Clubhouse. It all worked out perfectly and it was so rewarding to see them all helping each other with the tasks and actually learning something that I’d taught them. Greg then went on to do a session on Microsoft excel and Ben and Adam put together a handout on internet.

All our projects were finally coming together to and I was busily finishing my questionnaires with all the schools and then doing the agonising part of analysing it all, putting it into graphs and then writing reports for CBF. I also put together a leaflet for CBF as a result of the data I had collected. I think it’s safe to say that we all spent the last 2 weeks trapped in the Clubhouse or our office typing everything up. Ben and Adam had the huge task of completing an end of year evaluation of CBF with all managers and coaches in the four regions, where they had to get each person to fill out a 3 page questionnaire. I don’t know how they managed to analyse all that but they did, somehow. The best part of their research was that we all got to go along to the regions with them and managed to get involved with the wellbeing assessments Rich was doing. He’s another volunteer for CBF at the academy and he was responsible for doing these assessments with the kids that basically looked at their life. We got to do interviews with the children which ended up being pretty hard going as we were asking them questions like are you worried about your future, do you have enough to eat, are there people that care about you. It was emotional stuff but so interesting at the same time. Greg was also continuing with his project which was looking at how CBF is benefitting the children involved and identifying whether an U17’s league would be feasible. All this work was then going to benefit the charity as they could use our evaluations to make things better. We had to present our work to Charlie, Pete and Tim who’s the CEO of the charity. This might sound daunting but it was the most laid back presentation I’ve ever done. We each sat there with a beer in our hand and snacks laid out on the table. I wish every presentation was like that. Afterwards we headed out for a big night out in Freetown and didn’t return till the early hours of the morning. 

During our time working with the CBF we also got involved with the regional trials for the academy. This happens once a year in each of the regions, where the coaches come down to select players either from the leagues or from the local kids which they think have the potential to be in the academy squad. The players selected from the regional trials then get to go for a week of intensive training at the academy. If they are lucky enough to get through that stage they will get the life changing opportunity to stay at the academy in Tombo where they will be fully educated and get two football training sessions a day. As I mentioned in another blog, two of the boys this year have been invited to go to America on full scholarships and another two are joining the Liverpool academy for 6 weeks of training. 

It was around this time that we met John or otherwise known by the community as Paul Scholes. Johns a 12 year old boy who we got to know by playing football with Nosdo FC which was our local team. He’d sometimes play with us and run rings around everyone even though they were double his age. John had asked about joining a CBF team in the league and the only way for him to do it was to go along to one of the sessions and see what the coach said. However, we let him know that there were some trials coming up and on the day he was there raring to go at 9am even though they didn’t start until around 12. In his first trial match he played really well and we were all cheering him on. The academy coaches liked him and he got selected to play in the final match. It was a long wait in the baking sun and after 300 kids had been trailed only 16 of them were through to the final round. John was one of them. I was nervous for him as I really hoped he’d get through. It was a tough round and there were some pretty good players but John played in his usual style, nothing fancy but taking control of the back four and making those key passes with brilliant positioning. He only had 10 minutes to impress but when I looked over the coach’s shoulder I could see his name was written down. I was so excited for him and once he was told he’d made it to the academy trials he came running up to me and Greg and gave us each a big hug. Seeing him that happy made me realise how important this charity is and the impact it has on kids like John. When we left I gave him a football shirt and some football socks so he could feel the part at his trails. I’ll have to find out how he does in August.    

Overall, I found the work I was doing at CBF really interesting and I couldn’t have asked for a better charity to be a part of. I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity to work with them and even though I could have spent longer there I think I managed to make an impact. However small it was I'm hoping it improved something. In the future I can see the charity improving as the years go by and changing the lives of more and more children like the ones they have at the academy. One day, I’ve no doubt that we’ll be seeing some Sierra Leonian players from the academy in the Prem and hopefully one day they’ll even be in the World Cup.