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The AFC Dream Asia Foundation’s commitment to uplift and strengthen communities through the power of the beautiful game continued to gain strong momentum with the ongoing Indochina Starfish Foundation (ISF) – Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Dream Asia Legacy Project breaking new ground in 2022.
As part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the AFC, Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC) and the ISF, the five-year project was launched in 2020 with the aim of empowering children from underprivileged backgrounds by increasing the access to sport, improving health, and providing greater opportunities to cultivate life skills.
Over the past three years, the initiative has succeeded in implementing three programmes, namely the Youth Coach Development Pathway, the Continuous Coach Development Pathway, and the Social Impact Training for Coaches and Young Leaders.
Most recently, the activities carried out in 2022 under the Young Coach Development Pathway programme has enabled 15 aspiring coaches, five of whom are women, to become fully qualified experienced professionals.
Meanwhile, the Continuous Coach Development Pathway programme continues to provide 14 coaches, four of whom are female, with both the technical and personal capacity building opportunities to improve their skills and expertise.
In 2022, the senior coaches attended referee courses, goalkeeper training, sign language classes, first-aid training, and Goalball training – a team sport designed exclusively for visually impaired athletes.
The Social Impact Training for Coaches and Young Leaders programme, which aims to educate players on relevant social issues through football-for-good sessions, has trained more than 200 Cambodian coaches in three provinces.
An intensive, five-day training module was organised for 71 coaches, including 34 women, in September in Siem Reap, while another 38 coaches were put through the paces in Kampong Som in October before 102 coaches gathered in Phnom Penh later in the year.
Amongst the training topics included key social issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, gambling, gender equality, disability, social inclusion, health, children rights and teamwork.
Additionally, with the expansion of the project to the Province of Battambang, three additional coaches and one province coordinator have been equipped with the knowledge to train almost 200 additional disadvantaged youth.
As testament to the success of the ground-breaking ISF-AFC Dream Asia Legacy Project and in recognition of the commitment and progress of the participants, three ISF coaches were selected to be part of the national coaching setup for the 2023 ASEAN Para Games, which will be hosted by Cambodia in June this year.
