My

Story

Samuel

“I fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda because of war. I was only 16 when I made the journey to Rwanda and I have lived here since. I played football as a child and really loved it so when I moved to Rwanda I began to play football again with a local team. The team is based outside the camp in the host community and I play with the team whenever they have matches.

I coach two teams in the camp, one in the morning and the other in the evening. I do this three times a week. I’m proud of my new technical skills which I learned during this education. I’ve changed my way of thinking. I can now think faster and I can analyse things quickly. I will bring these new skills to my training sessions with the children to help them develop as footballers. I feel very important being a Young Coach and proud that the kids look up to me as a role model. Many of the children come to me for advice and to talk with me.

I can also share these new skills with others in the camp who didn’t have the chance to take part in this training programme. So, my plan is to now look for Peer Young Coaches to pass my knowledge on to them so there’ll be a bigger impact with the activities and we can reach more children. I feel now that I have the correct skills to identify and train Peer Young Coaches after the workshop during the last module of the education programme. I want to have an impact on people’s lives and to be a role model for them. This training is about helping children and training them. So, you can’t help a child when you misbehave yourself. I now fully understand that I must behave well to be a good example and role model for the children I coach. For example, if I was to abuse alcohol and if the children were to see me drunk they will say that our coach is a fake person. In my training sessions I will teach the children not to abuse alcohol and to behave well. But if they see me behaving badly and being drunk, then they won’t believe me anymore. Therefore, I must behave well so the children can copy my good behaviour and trust me and my teachings.”