The build up to the World Cup in South Africa kicked off last month in Hertfordshire.
During February 2010 the Herts FA ran a level 1 coaching course for 24 young adults linked to faith based relief and development charity called Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Harpenden, Herts.
The young adults are on their way to Cape Town, South Africa for the World Cup where they are going to be working in a township and some local apple farms to help train and start up football projects for people that would never get the chance.
Hundreds of people work on the apple farms just outside of Cape Town and many have nothing to do at the weekends. HIV/AIDS is rampant in the society and education is limited.
By joining up with a local charity called Thembalitsha the students will run fun football camps for hundreds of children and will also use the games and fun football drills as educational tools in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
By partnering with YWAM in this context the Herts FA are going to be impacting hundreds of children in South Africa this summer and we are excited to see the photos and hear the reports from what happens.
Paul Baker who heads up the programme from YWAM was delighted with the coaches achieving their Level 1, "YWAM felt that using football to help bring some enjoyment and education to children in townships during the world cup would be most effective if all those taking part were given some coach education. The Herts FA were very supportive of the project and were more than willing to come and train our 24 staff and students in the Level 1 coaching course"