The Kwahu Tafo Village Football Academy is the longest running project of the Ultimate Voluntary Organisation. It was realized early on that many of the children love football. In 2003 a football academy was established to train the children, and to improve their fitness and football skills, with an emphasis on selecting underprivileged children who showed talent for the game. Since its beginning we have grown from a fledgling Academy of roughly 20 children, to an Academy of 3 squads (U12, U14 and U17) made up of roughly 60 children from Kwahu Tafo and nearby surrounding villages.

The children train each afternoon for 3 hours, beginning at 3pm. They are supervised by the coaches and visiting volunteers who take them through various technique and fitness drills. Here the volunteer can train with the kids to help them (or you!) improve, or assist the coaches in designing drills to improve particular aspects of the childrens' game. Often the squads will be divided up into smaller groups, where you will be able to work more closely with individual children, and give them specific tuition.

The academy often hosts matches in Kwahu-Tafo or will travel to neighboring villages for friendly matches or regional tournaments. We are very fortunate to be supported by our volunteers who donate training equipment and football kits (i.e.boots, jerseys, and footballs) for the children to wear during their matches. Future plans for the Academy include an Open Squad, and a Girls' Football team, and we have almost completed the process of registering the Academy with the Ghanaian Football League, such that our players can participate at the national level.

The majority of the children live in our hostel in Kwahu-Tafo. The children sleep in a single dormitory, packed with 15 bunk beds, while some sleep on mattresses on the floor. The children help to cook their meals, and maintain the hostel, though all costs are covered by UVO. As education is a priority for us, we ensure that all the children attend school during the day, before participating in training each afternoon. We sponsor the school fees of all our children, from primary school through to secondary high school, as well their public health care fees, which covers them for any health related issues.

Recently, to ease the burden of rising food costs in Ghana, the hostel children have started a farm. Currently we have yam, maize and watermelon crops on three plots, with future plans for beans and green pepper. The children work on the farm every weekend, weeding, planting, and harvesting the crops at particular times in the year. The volunteer can help on the farm at any time during your stay, your extra hands will be greatly appreciated by the children! The yam and maize yield goes directly to the childrens' food ration, while the watermelon is sold and the profits used to buy other food stuffs such as palm oil, sugar and groundnut.

Before you come, if you are able to collect old football equipment for our academy, your support will be greatly appreciated. You can read our volunteer handbook(p. 7) for a list of what equipment we currently need, and contact our past volunteers for ideas on training techniques that will be helpful.