Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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The Indochina Starfish Foundation (ISF) – Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Dream Asia Legacy Project, which was launched in 2020 with the aim of empowering children from underprivileged backgrounds through the power of football, has reached its fifth and final year.
Supported by the AFC Dream Asia Foundation over the last four years, the project has been a catalyst for positive change and community development, contributing to the enhancement of thousands of lives across 14 Cambodian provinces through its key programmes, namely, the Young Coach Development Pathway, the Continuous Coach Development Pathway, and the Social Impact Training for Coaches and Young Leaders.
In 2023, as part of the Young Coach Development Pathway, ISF selected and successfully empowered 10 young coaches with the essential knowledge, skills, and experience required to pursue a career in coaching, while also introducing them to referee training and foundational techniques in organising blind football matches.
Additionally, the participants had the valuable opportunity to attend workshops focusing on Children with Disability Rehabilitation and wheelchair sports.
Meanwhile, under the Continuous Coach Development Pathway, 14 coaches honed their technical and personal capabilities facilitated by their exposure to referee training, sign language, football for blind players, wheelchair handling techniques for managing disability and wheelchair sports, as well as workshops that educated them on topics such as inclusivity.
The ISF’s goal to empower the selected candidates to become future leaders in the football-for-good sector in Cambodia came to fruition when as many as six ISF coaches were selected to be national coaches for the ASEAN Para Games in April 2023.
Furthermore, the enrolled coaches actively participated in a variety of engaging initiatives, including a five-day sustainability-focused football-for-good games development training camp led by Spirit of Football e.V., a comprehensive First Aid training session conducted in collaboration with the Red Cross Cambodia, and a plastic reduction workshop organised by Plastic Free SEA.
Moreover, underlining the AFC Dream Asia Foundation’s overarching motto of “Football Cares”, over 400 individuals experienced the transformative nature of the ISF’s Social Impact Training for Coaches and Young Leaders.
With the programme’s core principles rooted in the education of young players and coaches on pertinent social issues through its football-for-good sessions, every participant, upon completing the training, ardently voiced their support for equal treatment of boys and girls in football, signalling a remarkable improvement from the 25% support that was recorded at the time of commencement.
In September alone, more than 50 coaches and young leaders in the province of Banteay Meanchey underwent extensive training while the sessions held in Siam Reap in October were attended by 56 participants. Meanwhile, the Social Impact Training sessions in the capital city of Phnom Penh had an attendance of over 100 individuals.
An instance of ISF’s social impact training is the inspiring story of Phnom Penh’s Sopagna, who turned to football during difficult times and is now giving back to his community as a full-time ISF coach and Social Impact Coordinator.
Having started his career with the ISF in 2015, the youngster provides weekly training to able-bodied, physically and intellectually disabled, and HIV-positive players, while also assisting with the organisation of leagues and tournaments.
Reflecting on his journey with the ISF, Sopagna said: “My experience with football has been life-changing. Besides keeping me physically fit, being involved with the sport has helped me gain a lot of self-confidence and I hope I can soon realise my dream of becoming a professional coach.”
