RICKY Weir’s passion for coaching, coupled with developing life skills, has proved the perfect fit for the Royal Dutch Football Association’s breakthrough WorldCoaches programme.
The Jersey 2 Africa 4 Football founder launched the charity in 2013 with the aim of improving the lives of children in Africa, both through work on and off the football field.
Forming strong connections in Nairobi, Weir would provide courses that focus on key life skills through the medium of football.
Once the pandemic began, the Scotsman was unable to attend the courses in person, which had a detrimental impact on the charity and the children who benefitted from his guidance.
However, using the WorldCoaches template and with the backing of the Philip Gower Foundation, the Islander embarked on an exciting new venture for his non-profit.
The KNVB’s framework encompasses an extensive and fully integrated coaching programme which combines the teaching of life skills through football, with a qualification that coaches can earn to gain accreditation.
Weir said: “Philip Gower Foundation were really keen to jump on board and help us, but I wanted to develop the right plan and opportunity for them to assist with.
“Jersey 2 Africa worked in collaboration with and supported two qualified ‘World Coaches’, Jerim Owuor, based in Nairobi and his colleague Martha Karimi created a plan to roll out a five-day workshop for 25 coaches in December.
“Then at the end of the course, we had a tournament that enabled each coach to lead their own team, with the idea that they had a practical arena to demonstrate and implement what they had learned through the five days.
“It was brilliant to put the plan into action and see it first hand. It really was the culmination of years of hard work and the vision I had for how we can best serve the people of Nairobi from a life and football perspective.”
While the event proved a massive success, Weir now has his eyes firmly fixed on the future and how Jersey 2 Africa can continue their support without the need for his attendance in person each time.
“This is literally the model for us to progress with,” Weir continued. “I had a really big issue before the pandemic, in fact I was delivering parts of this, but it was me and only me.
“If I wasn’t there, nothing happened and those issues got worse when we didn’t have the ability to travel.
“What we now have in place is a system that works and coaches that can deliver the training already in Nairobi.
“The next step into this year is to reach out to more sponsors in order to run these workshops more regularly.
“The beauty is that we have proved it works and it can be managed from afar, with people we trust to deliver it.
“If we can get a yearly commitment of sponsorship, we can really start to make a significant impact in achieving our goals.”
nFor information on the work Weir does, or to donate to the charity, people can visit http://jersey2africa4football.org/
