Hayley Roach, the PR & Marketing Officer for the Sheffield & Hallamshire County FA swapped the creature comforts of Sheffield for the African bush!
For the past seven weeks Hayley has been working in Africa as a volunteer on a football coaching programme in rural communities in South Africa and on a lion rehabilitation programme in Zimbabwe.
Hayley's first four weeks were spent in South Africa as a football coach, working for an organisation called SCORE, which brings sports coaches from all over the world to work in different communities throughout Africa.
Hayley was placed in the North West Province in South Africa. SCORE uses sport to provide children and youth with valuable skills and opportunities that they need to succeed in life and contribute to their communities. This project aims to use football to train and educate young people, with a particular focus on girls, in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, life and leadership skills, sexual abuse and gender equality. The project will train a total of 1,600 peer leaders and educators in 45 schools who will in turn reach a further 19,600 children in 12 communities across three of the poorest provinces in South Africa.
Living with host families in their very basic homes, which didn't have bathrooms or kitchens or running water - Hayley got to experience to real African life. Hayley's role there was to coach coaches and to give teachers and community workers the knowledge and skills to be able to become football coaches.
"There is a severe lack of education and educated people in South Africa, so I felt very useful in going over to help these people learn a few skills about how to be a coach. I worked with almost 100 people in three different communities in the Province, who in turn can now go and deliver football coaching sessions to children, in an attempt to help reduce the challenges that these rural communities face - such as HIV,teenage pregnancy,drugs, reduce crime and uemployment."
"If everyone of those teachers or community volunteers now coaches a team I will have helped to make a difference to over 1,000 children in some of the poorest communities in South Africa."
Every day Hayley faced new challenges, having to walk miles every day to the pitch where the coaching clinics were held, over waste land mainly occupied by wandering cows, goats and sheep! Most of the pitches were just dirt and gravel and didn't have grass or goal posts.
"I think one of the most rewarding elements of my journey, was being involved in staging a football and netball tournament, which brought 450 children and adults from throughout South Africa together to play against each other. This tournament was held in East London - a coastal
resort- everyone that participated in the tournament took away the sea water and sand as souvenirs as they had never seen the sea before and they wanted to show their families and friends. It was an honour bringing those communities together for an unforgettable trip."
After working on the football project, Hayley flew to Zimbabwe to work on a game reserve called Antelope Park in Gweru, to work on a lion rehabilitation programme.
Over 200,000 lions used to roam the African continent, as recently as 1975.
The latest estimates show an 80 - 90% population decline in the last 30 years The objective of the lion project, is the reintroduction of the offspring of captive-bred lions into the wild. The lion population is diminishing due to poaching, less prey for the lions to hunt, more human inhabitation into their environment and a lower survival rate of cubs.
As a volunteer Hayley's duties includedwalking lions in the bush, fixing fencing, cleaning the enclosures, feeding the lions - chopping up a dead cow that was fed to the lions!
Lion cubs are taken from their mums at 3 weeks old and then looked after by a lion handler. At five months old they start walking in the bush with volunteers and the lion handler, to introduce them slowly to their environment etc, lions then see humans as part of their pride so they don't attack you unless you provoke them!! They walk in the bush two or three times a day. The lions are taken out on night encounters to hunt prey and despite their "human" up bringing their natural instincts are very much alive. The plan is to re-introduce prides of lions back in the safaris throughout Africa which will breed and live normally.
"So after seven weeks, I feel I have accomplished my two objectives which were to make a difference to peoples lives by through football and play in small part in helping to save one of the planets (almost) endangered species. The small part I've played is not going to change the world, but I'm happy to say I've done my bit and I'm grateful to the County FA for giving me the opportunity. I also want to thank everyone who made a donation to the charity to make my journey possible."
For more information on the projects visit:
www.score.org.za and
www.africanmpact.com
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