Extreme sponsored swim in aid of Right to Dream!

On Saturday 26th September, Katy Hooper, completed the British Gas Great East Swim in Suffolk (UK) in aid of Right to Dream. This involved swimming 1 mile in cold open water. After all her training, in both indoor pools and in open water, she completed the course in the impressive time of 34 minutes and 33 seconds.

Reflecting on the day, Katy said “Although it was hard work, it was a lot of fun. The sun was shining, and all the swimmers were in good spirits. I was pleased with my time, and was glad that all the training paid off! I was really proud to be there representing Right to Dream, and glad that I could help out doing something I enjoy”.

Through sponsorship from family and friends Katy has raised over £400, which will be put towards setting up a comprehensive health education programme to be delivered at all Right to Dream Projects.

Not only has Katy supported Right to Dream’s work by enduring this physical challenge; as a science teacher she has lead an appeal for donations of school science equipment. With the school building at the new Academy site nearing completion, equipment donated by Charters School, based in Ascot, will make a huge impact on the delivery of the practical component of the science course.

Right to Dream would like to extend our thanks to both Charters School and personally to Katy for all her efforts and continued support.

If you are impressed with Katy’s extreme swimming – it’s not too late to sponsor her, you can donate online at www.justgiving.com/katyhooper.

Katy ready for her swim

From blood diamonds to beach football: The birth of the Bellamy Foundation

In one of the world’s poorest countries an innovative new sports foundation led by a premier league player is changing more than just perceptions.

***

“The rebels were at our door. They came in with their guns. They wanted my baby son. I pleaded no, that he had a stomach sickness. The female rebel told the men to go. She gave me 100,000 leones (£20) and left. I thanked God. Maybe if I didn’t have a sick son to care about they would also have taken me away. They killed one baby near to my house.”

It’s June 1997 and members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are sweeping through the Kington district of Freetown, Sierra Leone ‘recruiting’ for their militia by snatching babies and children and shooting the rest.

The ‘resource’ war was being fueled by a fight for diamonds dug along river beds to the East of the capital. The exchange of diamonds for weapons between the RUF and Liberia was deepening the crisis. The 1997 surge on Freetown was its violent climax where more than 3000 lives were lost. You’ve probably seen or heard of the film ‘Blood Diamond’ starring Leonardo Dicaprio depicting these horrific events. Sadly for many living in Sierra Leone today, this was a reality, not hollywood.

“Since my baby and I survived that day I have always wanted the best for him. Sometimes I sacrifice my whole salary just to send him to school. John is everything I have. At first I resisted football as I thought it would take time from school but now I can see the future it can give him. He is a goalkeeper and if he makes the academy everything could change. He could lead our country.”

Selina MaCarthy, a nurse and her only son John Fillie, were lucky to survive. Twelve years on and John is on the cusp of being selected as one of a dozen first generation players to Sierra Leone’s first professional youth football academy. Scouted from across the country this small group of young boys will represent a project that has aspirations not just to help them realise their potential but to also use football to empower teams and communities to initiate positive social change. An ambitious project in any country, but considering the recent history of Sierra Leone and with unemployment at 80%, it appears brave and optimistic.

*************

Freetown

“Welcome to Lungi International – you are in Freetown now!” Exclaims Kenya Airways as you taxi past the mirage of palm trees on a single strip of sweltering tarmac.

Freetown. Like its African neighbour to the North East, Timbuktu, Freetown is one of those distant, exotic, almost mythical places that most of us are aware exist, vaguelly recalling a lyric from a song or a reference in history, but little more. This is slightly worrying, considering the significant role we as a colonial power played in forming it. Aside from the familiarity of names – Aberdeen, Waterloo, Hastings – the first thing you notice in Freetown is the typical bustle but without the hassle I’ve experienced in other African cities. The dramatic geography of Freetown – sweeping peninsula, arcing beaches and ports, and steep surging hills, is almost at odds with its quiet charmed chaos; endless ramshackle Dickensian markets, with seas of people, taxis, bikes, trolleys, swelling in and out of the streets like tides. There are numerous war-inflicted amputees who wheel themselves along muddy alleyways in gloriously inventive homemade contraptions. One guy who looks my age and has lost both his legs high above the knee calls me from his tricycle, ‘hey aboto (white man) don’t take taxi. Come with me. I have four wheel drive,’ before pulling an impressive wheely, laughing loudly and spinning off down the hill.

The buildings have retained their colonial style but since the war many have changed the materials they’re built with; window shutters and steep rooftops are bent out of corrugated iron rather than hard woods and stone – it’s like a Tim Burton town in the sunshine. If anything, wondering through Freetown I feel less threatened, less of an outsider, than in other African city’s I’ve visited. In Freetown you happily become part of that ‘seething mass of humanity’ we often hear about but rarely experience.

My invite to this vibrant place came via a friend I’d kept in touch with since the summers I’d spent leading volunteer expeditions in West Africa. In 1999 Tom Vernon took some time out from a sports science degree in Liverpool and found himself coaching and teaching on the streets of Ghana’s capital, Accra. Tom was quickly struck by the gaping hole between the potential of these brilliant ten year olds and the countries so called poor Premier League. Something was going badly wrong in their development. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that a lack of adequate nourishment and basic education were undermining any chance these young talented players of becoming something. Tom rallied family and friends in High Wycombe and soon had the funds to start a basic academy. He scouted the country for his first generation of players, recruited volunteer coaches and teachers and set about work. Ten years on, Tom and his team at Right to Dream are completing a European standard sports academy in Ghana, have graduates at Fulham FC and, almost more impressively considering these boys backgrounds, 22 are currently on scholarships at top colleges in the UK and the States. Tom has also managed to become Manchester United’s head scout for Africa. Funny what a summer teaching English abroad can lead to.

In 2007 Tom got a call from a well known English Premier League player asking if he could help him set up a similar academy in Sierra Leone. Craig Bellamy, captain of Wales and today one of a plethora of world-class strikers at Manchester City, did not have the best ‘google me’ results page as he would be the first to admit. Regardless of reputations a partnership was formed, Bellamy visited Sierra Leone again, wrote a significant initial cheque and publicly made his commitment to the people of this war-torn nation. The government gave the newly formed Craig Bellamy Foundation a decent slice of land an hour from Freetown and in mid 2008 the goal-scorer took part in a ceremony and broke the earth where the new academy would be built.

It’s July 2009 and Bellamy is in South Africa preparing for the upcoming season. His visit to Sierra Leone last month oversaw the final trials 27 of which, 16 will become the academy’s first generation. The young goalkeeper John and his mother are hoping he makes the cut.

Alongside the academy, the Bellamy Foundation has also set-up with seed funding from UNICEF, a football league built on incentives that go beyond winning fortnightly matches. Each one of the forty U14 and U12 teams are also awarded points for fair play on the pitch, attending school and on the weekends when games don’t take place, initiating and completing community projects. Meeting some of the teams coaches and managers and you soon discover that a football league table can be a powerful motivator.

As we watch the competitvely fought U12 game between Promising Stars and Portugeuse Town in front a crowd in their hundreds, Kamusu Koroma, Regional Manager for the league in the Freetown district tells me:

“Previously the coaches and supporters would beat the ref before the game starts. Through the coaches training programme and now in the league we are demostrating fair play and incentivising ourselves to change the way we behave.”

When I ask if this is an overnight change across the league, Kamusu acknowledges the reality, “This is not a day job, it is a process. The good thing is that we are confronting corruption head on and showing that you can win football matches without cheating and violence.”

Coach of Freetown’s Eastern Eagles, Abdul Karim, goes further; “I believe the fair play policy of the CBF league is already changing attitudes of the young players. We are moving away from violence in our communities because of this league.”

The boys themselves are understandably more focused on the football but are still aware of the bigger picture they’re involved in, “Let me say the difference between this league and other games I’ve played in is that we are all all brothers here. We don’t fight anymore but we can still win,” says a determined looking 13 year old called Suleman who is known simply to everyone else as Essien because he is rarely beaten in a challenge even when he plays with boys two years older than him.

Beyond the football pitches the teams have already been involved in community clean-ups, water well repairs, and leading peer and health education sessions. As Tom Vernon suggests this is quite something considering that many of these boys older brothers, uncles and fathers were the child soldiers that make “this today’s history.” And because like goalkeeper John, most of the boys in this league were born just as the civil war was reaching its peak in the late 1990s, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is with them where a good chunk of hope for a better Sierra Leone rests. We know there are many life lessons to be learnt through sport but when it is set against this kind of recent historical backdrop as it is here, it becomes a much more powerful opportunity to those fortunate enough to be involved. Coming here you can understand the wave of optimism.

During my stay in Freetown I am a guest of Durosimi Thomas and his family. Duro is the foundation’s in-country director who has built a career as a freelance BBC sports correspondent (he had a premonition in 2001 not to go to African Nations cup game in Ghana because he tripped on a stone that morning, 126 people died in a stadium crush that day), resurrecting local interest in football and staunchly fighting anti-corruption in his country at every turn. A deep voiced, our-man-in-freetown thick set man, Duro is only too aware not to get carried away;

“Football is what I know, and football can teach people to be better citizens quickly. But it will still take time. Bellamy has given Sierra Leonian’s a good opportunity to find a new way, let’s hope we take this chance.”

*****

The league is only three months old and the academy is yet to open, but the hundred strong staff now involved with this new approach to sport and development in Sierra Leone obviously believe passionately in what they are doing both for themselves and their nation.

Kamusu, the regional manager of the league for Freetown, shakes my hand as I leave one red-sand rectangle of football, shouting and laughter for another;

“Football is finally getting a great name here – before, playing football was seen as idleness, now you can break the cycle of poverty by kicking a ball.”

For Kamusu, young John the goalkeeper, and his friends that survived the horrors of last decades war it is the simplicity of such an ambition that seems to be kick-starting the kind of positive mindset many people of this beautiful country clearly crave.

These footballers can feel change coming, even if it is only one game at a time.
———————————

Article written by Ben Keene on his visit to Freetown in July 2009

The Craig Bellamy Foundation Academy will officially open in 2010. The league will extend later this year to also include girls and amputees.

To find out more and support the projects:

craigbellamyfoundation.org
righttodream.com
Twitter: craigbellamySL

Right to Dream Beat Chelsea F.C. Academy 2-0! (Match Report)

The Right to Dream Academy from Ghana played the Chelsea F.C. Academy in London, England on Friday afternoon.  Two first half goals of the highest standard saw off their opponents in great fashion.

The first goals came from a quick break down the right side by Osei Kwame.  Kwame slid the ball into the box and Daniel Ndi slotted home with a cool finish.  Top marksmen for Right to Dream on this tour Godsway Donyoh scored another remarkable goal.  Just like the previous game against Everton Godsway scored from outside the box.  This time it was with power and on his weaker right foot into the top corner of the Chelsea net.

In the second half both sides failed to convert many chances, however the standard of play was at the very highest for an Under 16 match.  Coach for Right to Dream, Gareth Henderby was very happy with his team’s performance against a very well organised Chelsea outfit.  He commented “This was a tough match where we had to concentrate 100% for the full game.  We scored some great goals and defended well at times.  We have had a long tour so fatigue is starting to creep into our game but we coped with it well mentally.”

For more information about the Right to Dream Academy, please visit the official website: www.righttodream.com

RtD Academy Puts on Classy Performance Against Everton F.C. Academy (Match Report)

The Right to Dream Academy from Ghana played an Under 16 friendly with Everton F.C. from England in a friendly match at Everton’s First class facility in Liverpool, U.K.

Right to Dream won the Match 4-0.  The team from Ghana who recently finished 3^rd in the Manchester United Premier Cup World Finals in Manchester are using their time in the U.K. to play some high profile friendly matches.

The game started well for the Ghanaians as they dominated early possession with neat crisp passing with moments of excellent technical skills.  Within 15 minutes the Right to Dream boys went ahead through Bertram Traore after a quick Enock Kwakwa free kick released him on the edge of the box.  Before half time the Right to Dream Academy continued to dominate through some excellent interplay and movement which was too much for their opponents.  A second goal came before the break by Godsway Donyoh.  His curling 25 yard shot beat the keeper and went in off both posts.

The second half continued in the same way as the Ghanaians kept dominating the game.  The Everton players began to get frustrated and tackles were starting to come in hard and late.  Eventually the Everton No. 6 was red carded for a late challenge on Kwakwa.  The goals continued to flow through Adjei Boateng and Boateng before full time. 

Captain of Right to Dream Joshua Yaro was very happy with his player’s performance “The players are confident after last week’s tournament when we just missed out on the final.  Today we continued and played with confidence and showed more ability than our opponents.”

The coach of Right to Dream Gareth Henderby commented “ The level of performance by our boys (Right to Dream) was excellent.  Not many other under 16 teams in the world can perform at that level.  Everton are a huge club with the reputation of bringing through world class players from their academy like Rooney.  To beat them in this manner was not only very satisfying but also very pleasing in the way the team has developed over the past 3 years.  They have come along way by hard work and application.”

On the day that President Obama visits Ghana, Right to Dream Academy pupils plan speeches for the President to deliver…..

Speech for President Obama to deliver during his visit to Elimina Castle, Cape Coast, Ghana

I am here today in Ghana, Africa, the land of my forefathers. I am very pleased and honoured to be the first black president of the USA. I stand here now as a free man but only if our fathers were given the equal chance to think for themselves, talk for themselves, and act for themselves, there would have been a great continent, called AFRICA!

Poverty free, no war, food for every child, quality education and togetherness could have been the key to great and mighty Africa. I am here today at the Elmina Castle where my fathers were kept and tortured by our colonial master to work for them. What do you think they really need my people?

They need someone to rise up and stand for himself and for others and together point a finger at them and say we need a chance. That’s all that we need. That’s all. Now I say as the President of the USA. I will make sure the rights and freedoms of everyone – either black or white, nice or ugly, short or tall. Everyone is to be respected and obey the views and opinions of everyone.

Now I say ‘if together we stand divided we will fall’. Me dase, Thank you.

Geoffrey Acheampong (Middle Class), 10th July 2009

Right to Dream wins Africa Premier Cup for second year running

HILVERSUM, Netherlands. Wednesday 17 June 2009

Watch the Nike video of the Right to Dream boys sing when they winning

Defending Africa Premier Cup Champions Right to Dream Academy retained their title following an exciting final match against Enppi in Hilversum at NIKE’s European Headquarters today. An early goal from the Ghanaian team set the scene for a thrilling match and Enppi’s determined performance soon led to an equaliser, leaving the match 1:1 after normal time.

Explosive end to end action followed in extra time, with both teams missing the net by the narrowest of margins. The prospect of penalty kicks beckoned when Right to Dream’s dogged resilience matched with moments of individual brilliance eventually paid off with a winning goal – just minutes away from the final whistle. Right to Dream held on through the inevitable fight back from Enppi and the match ended 2:1, with Right to Dream worthy winners of the title and, more importantly, a place in the World Finals of the Manchester United Premier Cup in August.

Coach Gareth Henderby: “The standard of football throughout the qualification process has been higher than last year, both in Ghana and also here in Holland. Every team played well, each match was tough and tested our boy’s talent and determination. We are delighted of course to win a place in Manchester again and will be trying our best to do even better than our 5th place finish last year.

“Preparation will start as soon as we get home. We won’t change much from last year – we played well but just had one or two things go wrong. One lesson we did learn from the other teams in Manchester is to take our Head Scout with us, so he can evaluate the other teams and prepare our tactics.

“Hopefully we will get the chance to play against Manchester United again – the same result would be very nice! In any case it would be great if we could be drawn into a group with teams from Europe – that would be a great experience for the team.

“Some of our boys are leaving at the end of the summer, having won scholarships to study in the USA. We’re very proud they have the opportunity to change their lives and eventually come back to Ghana able to give something back to their community. But first we want to travel to Manchester and do as well as we can.”

Enppi’s Coach Sayed Yasseen was happy with his team’s performance – if not the result: “Of course we’re disappointed not to win, but the participation in a tournament of this standard is more important as it gives the players a great opportunity for personal development. To experience high level international competition at such a young age can only make them better players long-term.

“The team from Ghana will represent Africa very well at the World Finals I am sure. Their level of fitness is exceptionally high, their interaction as a team is good; they have amazing control of the ball and always look like scoring. We did well to hold them, but in the end they were just too strong for us. We wish them well in Manchester and look forward to next year’s competition – when we hope it will be our turn!”

It has been a hard lesson for Chabab Erriadhi Djazairi according to coach Abdul-Aziz Kherrouf. “We played to our best but that was just not enough. This was our first year at Premier Cup and we had no idea how high the level of competition would be. We need to work on our technical and tactical skills before we come back next year but in fairness to our boys they did not play badly. I am very proud that they have played to the best of their ability and represented Algerian football in such a positive way. We hope to be back next year – even stronger!”

At the Closing Ceremony NIKE’s Sports Marketing Director for Africa Tina Salminen thanked the referees from the KNVB and Gabon born Belgian Referee of the Year Jérôme Efong N’Zolo, and his linesmen who officiated at today’s final.

It was a clean sweep for the boys from Right to Dream as Ms Salminen presented awards to the MVP as voted by coaches of the opposing teams: I.Mutala (No.10) and Man of the Match: I.Normesinu (No.11) nominated by NIKE employees and spectators at the Final.

Bons A. Abambora, Minister Counsellor for Ghana was delighted to attend the tournament for the second day in succession and admitted he was impressed by the talent on display, “The level of skill at your age is amazing I have no doubt that we have seen some great new talent to represent Ghana – and indeed Africa – in the future!”

Ghana’s Right to Dream Academy are this evening celebrating as Premier Cup Champions of Africa for the second time and dreaming once more of becoming the first ever African MUPC World Champions. They will join Manchester United; Changchun Yatai FC; Salgaocar SC; Boin Middle School; Gamba Osaka; Assumption College Thonburi;  Sao Paulo; Colo Colo; Marconi Stallions; Werder Bremen; AS Roma; Atlético de Madrid; West Bromwich Albion; KRC Genk ; MTK Hungaria; Orlando Pirates & USA’s Arsenal SC at the MUPC World Finals 5-8 August.

The last word from Hilversum came from Chelsea and Ghana Black Stars’ midfielder Michael Essien who, as Tournament Ambassador had a special message for participants. “Congratulations you have all played well. We hope you have enjoyed the experience. Work on your game and continue to practice. To the winners – Right to Dream Academy – I wish you the very best of luck in Manchester. Travel safely and I hope we will meet again.”

For further information, please visit: www.premiercupafrica.com

Out of Africa: The Inside Track

Tom Vernon is not your average football coach. Ten years ago the High Wycombe born Vernon travelled through Ghana whilst on a trip to visit a friend. A fleeting visit soon turned into a life long vocation.

Fast-forward a decade and the ‘Right to Dream Academy’ is in its 8th year, and due to its success and Vernon’s burgeoning reputation, he is now Manchester United’s chief scout in Africa. Representing the biggest club in the world, in the second largest continent on the planet, Vernon’s knowledge of African football is second to none.

Sport.co.uk had the privilege of talking to Vernon about his successful ‘Right to Dream Academy’ and how his work with impoverished children in Africa has alerted some of the biggest clubs in world football:

He said: “I came into Ghana ten years ago and was coaching in the Ghanaian Premier League with some of the biggest clubs in West Africa. While doing that in the morning, in the afternoons I was going out basically working with kids on the street, running coaching clinics passing on some of the basics.”

“We looked at the standard of 12 year-olds we were working with and it was exceptionally high, and then looked at the quality of player in the Ghanaian Premier league. Something didn’t add up because the kids of 12 looked like they could end up playing for anyone, but those in the Premier League weren’t those types of players.”

Wealth of talent

Having established that there was a large pool of talented young African players falling by the way side, Vernon was keen to find the origins of the problem; it was here that the notion of the ‘Right to Dream Academy’ was born.

He said: “The question we asked ourselves was, what was stopping these kids from fulfilling their potential? A lot of the motivation behind the academy came from trying to address those issues. The kids we started working with from day 1 formed the nucleus of the 1st generation of our academy. We gradually tried to address the issues which were undermining their progress.”

The development of these talented young children was of paramount importance to Vernon and subsequently the ‘Right to dream Academy’ was formed. The issues that affected, and still affect these children on a daily basis are ones that so many of us take for granted:

Vernon said: “Obviously nutrition was a big issue, most our kids were only eating one meal a day. Education was a big issue, since most of them couldn’t afford to go to school. It also became apparent that many of the young children had unstable home lives. We wanted to give them a platform to try and build their talents.”

As each issue was addressed, the ability that initially drew Vernon towards them in the first place began to shine like a beacon under ‘Right to Dream’s’ careful nourishment.

It soon becomes abundantly clear that although Vernon and ‘Right to Dream’ began as an organisation to help talented young footballers fulfil their potential, it has evolved into a far broader and more important institution.

Football not the only destination

The foundations that this non-profit organisation supplies transcends football and filters out into their everyday life; in fact only 5% of the graduates choose professional football as their final outlet. If at first these youngsters illustrate an aptitude for football, Vernon and his team use this ability as a launch pad to a better life, yet assuming a far greater responsibility than any normal football academy.

Vernon said: “It allows kids who have the hunger and the work ethic to basically do whatever they want in life. What we desperately didn’t want to become and what we are not, is an academy that focuses just on the best young African players in each generation, thus neglecting the rest.”

“In Africa when you run an academy like ours, you assume much more significance in a young boy’s life. For us we become the player’s real family, we become his source of nutrition, education, and his friends. You are everything for the kid over here.”

As a result of the rounded education that ‘Right to Dream’ supplies, not only has the academy had a number of successful football graduates like King Osei Gyan (who is currently on the books at Fulham although having to ply his trade in Belgium due to the archaic legislation still in place) but also, and to the immense pride of its founder, the Academy has produced a number of players who are furthering themselves on scholarships in the States.

He said: “Really the only requirement we have from our kids once we select them, is that they put in maximum effort, and we will then look and identify what their key skills are; sourcing the best opportunity for them to become the most successful person they can be.”

“We’ve created a model where kids can explore all areas of their talent, and then they are empowered to make a decision for themselves for what’s best for their future, rather than have someone say to them, this is what you’ve got to do.”

The ‘Right to Dream’ Academy and its direction has even surprised the modest Vernon:

“You imagine that when you set up a academy like this, your proudest day would be watching your boy run out for his debut for his first professional club, when actually its been seeing boys graduate from top boarding schools from the states and getting scholarships from universities, knowing that their future is more secure.”

For more information on the ‘Right to Dream Academy’ go to www.rightodream.com.