From Mozambique to South Africa

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The next training course was held by Sascha Bauer from 21st April to 24th April at the GCU Academy in Cape Town, our partner NGO for some years. This time Sascha was accompanied by Austrian ex-professional player Gerald Gansterer, who heard of FFWU in an interview with Nadine Angerer and had offered his expertise and support.

The tried and tested concept of a course of training days leading up to a Festa de Football on the last day was now transferred to Cape Town, where it was very well received. The interest of nine active football players was raised to join and become youth coaches at GCU. They have known the academy for years since playing there as teenagers, and they form the bridge from one generation and age class to the next, which is ideal to develop a sustainable consistency of the project into the future.

To see the development since the beginning of our partner ship is very impressive’ trainer coach Sascha observes happily, ‘although not all problems of the Heideveld-Community can be solved through the work of the GCU, you can see the positive influence everywhere, especially at the Woodlands partner school. The vegetable garden is growing, school walls have been painted, the grass pitch is clean of rubbish and several sport activities are on offer. The library is filling up with books, and older school children help younger players in an after-school support group. The trainers offer sports activities in several schools which are missing in the school curriculum. But with all the progress the funding situation is far from ideal to run a successful training academy – essential resources such as having enough footballs and sneakers for all players are lacking. We will therefore continue to work with persistence to fulfill our next goal to improve this situation.’