Week 2 After-School Session Continues Early Success

Below you find another detailed report from the second afterschool session of CFDP. The sessions were organized, designed, and implemented by the CFDP Team in Cameroon. The information below is provided by the After-school Project Manager, Aminkeng Brian. This report comes to you in his own words; his reaction to the activities of CFDP as they happened before his own eyes.

This is the report on the camp that took place on Wednesday Nov 10, 2010 at Government Bilingual High School Kosala:

We got started at precisely 3:30pm Cameroon Time (6 hours ahead EST). We arrived at the venue a bit late due to poor weather and slippery nature of the road leading to the institution.

CFDP Leaders present were Aminkeng Brian, Diba Dickson, Ngoe Wallace, Akom Caroline, Myango Mukoi Nenne, and Ashu.

Number of Youth Present was 11 girls, 40 boys; 51 total

Warm-up: The jogging exercise lasted for about 10 minutes and during this exercise divided into two groups. We emphasized to youths the importance of warm-ups to a footballer before entering a pitch (to avoid cramps and relax the muscles). After that we moved straight to our traditional ice breaking.

To the football drills: Here contrary to our last week session at Nkamlikum, we increased the number of drills because of their technical knowhow and application to it. Here we discovered that most of the youths, especially the boys could do these exercises freely, but when it came to the girls they had difficulties. Also during the short passes, we emphasized to them the necessity to be focused when giving a pass to your partner. Here we likened the situation to their lives; they have to be focused and not hurry in whatever they do, for it is necessary to be composed in life.

The juggling of the ball was the initiative of the sports teacher, who emphasized that a good footballer must always know how juggle the ball. The exercises lasted for close to 50 minutes and then it was time for the discussion.

During the discussion, which we did while seated, we talked on adolescence. The youths were divided into three groups, with two CFDP Leaders per group. Dickson, Nenne, and Caroline led the discussions, while the rest where supporting. Questions were asked on what they understood by adolescence, the age limit and characteristics. Many of them supplied interesting answers and when we started discussing in detail with them about the topic. It aroused their attention so much. They found the topic so interesting so much that at the end of the session, they were still asking questions

Comments (abridged):

It should be noted that the poor turn out was due to the fact that most of the youths were involved in their inter-class competitions in football, handball and volleyball. Thus making it difficult for us to have a good number of the students, since both boys and girls were busy cheering their respective teams. Notwithstanding, we still had the attention of the present fifty one students.

Their general participation was really encouraging and a form of morale booster for us to continue working with them in the future.