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…passionate about making a difference…

INTERNATIONAL

Full Circle have established links with various international organisations and have helped several overseas programmes get off the ground by providing specialist coach training and equipment to ensure as many children as possible can access sport and activity.

Please see below for details of our last trip.

We all like to think we do our bit for charity - whether its doing something daft for Sport Relief, a monthly direct debit or making a pledge to Children in Need. But one group of sports coaches did something a bit different, and they all came back wiser and better for it.

Working as a coach, you could probably say ‘I make a difference every day’, but how can you really go about changing the lives of disadvantaged people thousands of miles away?

In September 2011 five people went that extra mile (well, around 6,000 actually) as they embarked on a fortnight-long trip to the Western Cape of South Africa to coach underprivileged children and pass on coaching skills to aspiring coaches.

Sam Abrey researched and led the trip to Buffelskraal Farm in the Hex Valley, which was the central hub for all the activity that took place. ‘We were quite a sight arriving at Heathrow’ commented Sam, ‘I had arranged collections for both sports equipment and football shirts which resulted in 22 huge bags to be checked in!’

There were obviously lots of differences to coaching in England, one being the vast numbers of children that arrived at each session giving the UK Coaches challenge after challenge to ensure that each session was engaging for everyone. ‘The facilities consisted of a Rugby pitch sized grassy area and a stone-filled sandy car park that served as a Netball Court’ reported Sam, ‘So fitting everyone into the area was a challenge in itself!’

During the two weeks the team delivered coaching sessions to more than 200 children and trained more than 20 coaches to ensure sustainability of the activity once they returned home. ‘Our main purpose with the aspiring coaches was to give coaching skills to the coaches and some activity ideas so that they were able to feel confident when delivering to the children’ says Sam. ‘With our help, each farm has set up their own sports club and take part in inter-farm competitions’.

But what about the language barrier? Did that cause any problems? ‘We found the older children understood a fair bit of English, and once one person understood the message would ripple through the group. We also tried to pick up as much Afrikaans as we could too. Our favourite word was “dungus” which meant “thingy/whatsit/do-da or ooji-ma-flip”.

‘We all have memories that will last a life-time from the trip, everything from the scenery to the sheer delight on each child's face when we gave them their football shirt to keep’ remembers Sam. ‘Every time I think about the amazing time we had it brings a smile to my face and I’m very proud of what we were able to contribute to both the farm workers and children’s lives’.

The UK Coaches (l-r)

Back - Anna Thurston, Sam Abrey

Front - Pete Lang, Sam Cliff & Chris Manning

To read the full trip Blog click here