Three days of football camps concluded on Wednesday. WOW. We had between 35 and 40 local youth attend each day. Different groups of youth represented the various quarters in Kumba and nearby villages. Monday and Tuesday's camps were held at St. Francis College. The last day we rounded up at G.T.H.S. The youth ranged in age from 12 to 24. All of the youth completed surveys before and after the camps. Needless to say, we learned a lot about how the program can grow from here. It is amazing to see how the Kumba community is receiving the program. It is very difficult to sum in words what has transpired in the past 3 days. Some examples of the feedback we are getting...
One teacher from Diligent Bilingual Secondary School commented he was very impressed that the youth from his class were so engaged in the discussions. He noticed a difference in the way they interacted the next few days at school. He is very interested in the program and wants to see it continue at his school on a regular basis.
One 24 year old who attended the camp said he learned so many things that he had never known about HIV.
One 16 year old said he took some advice he gained from the discussion with his peers about healthy relationships and communication with parents and approached his father about their strained relationship. He believes it will improve.
One proprietor of a school requested we run the program there. In addition to reaching out to the youth, she explained their need for a team set of football jerseys.
In interviews after the camps, many youth were able to quickly relay the information they learned and expressed their love for the combination of football and education.
We met with the former Provencial Delegate of Youth and Sports for the Southwest in Cameroon. He was impressed with our progress and looks forward to promoting education and football development to young Cameroonians with our program. He is well connected in the national football community.
For now...we head to Barombi village to see old friends and the water supply system built by the local community in 2008 and designed and funded by six University of Dayton ETHOS Students.
Saturday we will have a meeting with the program leaders to plan for the next few months. We will implement our program with weekly sessions in secondary schools. Before September we will move to one village outside of Kumba, Mambanda, and run one or two days of football camps similar to ones we ran this week. The purpose will not only be to disseminate information as we have done thus far, but to collect much needed data related to sexual activity, condom use, and awareness of STDs and HIV AIDS in rural communities.
A detailed report of the progress we are making in Cameroon now will follow later in August and the blog will continue to be updated once we return to the US.
The wheels are turning...
One teacher from Diligent Bilingual Secondary School commented he was very impressed that the youth from his class were so engaged in the discussions. He noticed a difference in the way they interacted the next few days at school. He is very interested in the program and wants to see it continue at his school on a regular basis.
One 24 year old who attended the camp said he learned so many things that he had never known about HIV.
One 16 year old said he took some advice he gained from the discussion with his peers about healthy relationships and communication with parents and approached his father about their strained relationship. He believes it will improve.
One proprietor of a school requested we run the program there. In addition to reaching out to the youth, she explained their need for a team set of football jerseys.
In interviews after the camps, many youth were able to quickly relay the information they learned and expressed their love for the combination of football and education.
We met with the former Provencial Delegate of Youth and Sports for the Southwest in Cameroon. He was impressed with our progress and looks forward to promoting education and football development to young Cameroonians with our program. He is well connected in the national football community.
For now...we head to Barombi village to see old friends and the water supply system built by the local community in 2008 and designed and funded by six University of Dayton ETHOS Students.
Saturday we will have a meeting with the program leaders to plan for the next few months. We will implement our program with weekly sessions in secondary schools. Before September we will move to one village outside of Kumba, Mambanda, and run one or two days of football camps similar to ones we ran this week. The purpose will not only be to disseminate information as we have done thus far, but to collect much needed data related to sexual activity, condom use, and awareness of STDs and HIV AIDS in rural communities.
A detailed report of the progress we are making in Cameroon now will follow later in August and the blog will continue to be updated once we return to the US.
The wheels are turning...
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