An overwhelming majority of S2S participants parents/ guardians are day traders who rely on footfall of the public to make their income. With the nationwide lockdown in place, this means of income was totally halted and placed a huge financial burden on families. This caused both parents and children to become quite desperate and the need for a holistic approach was needed beyond our usual scope.  

There were concerns that some of the children may even succumb to participating in looting closed shops if there was no intervention in place. 

Over 100 S2S participants’ and families were provided with food and hygiene packages including salt, cooking oil, bags of rice, gari (ground cassava), pasta, beans, a range of vegetables and some tinned goods including sardines and tomato paste. In addition, hygiene products such as sanitisers, soap and face masks were also distributed. 

We ensured to educate and advise families about all protocols issued by the government and also gave some reiterated some important prevention methods such as frequent hand washing, social distancing and wearing masks. 

During this exercise, our S2S colleagues became enlightened about more extensive areas for delivery that needed to be incorporated into our objectives. Through the home visitations, we strengthened our relationship with parents/guardians, gained a better understanding of S2S participants and realized the integral need for collecting both qualitative and quantitative data of our participants with consent. 

Meeting these healthcare needs often required us to raise funds on short notice, which proved unsustainable and left us unable to respond effectively in emergency situations. While healthcare wasn’t part of S2S’s original mission, the growing demand within the La community and among our participants highlighted the necessity of providing some level of healthcare assistance. 

In January 2024, we hosted a mass National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) enrollment session in partnership with healthcare professionals and administrators from the local hospital. We were able to enroll nearly all S2S participants across all age groups. 

This initiative has provided them with access to basic medical care at no additional cost, as well as significant subsidies on procedures and medications. 

The need for our intervention was largely because their families could not afford to further their education due to their financial difficulties and complexities in the family home. There was also a risk of some of the participants falling behind in their formal education. In some unfortunate instances, some participants resist the support in favour of truancy and at times pose challenging behaviour.  

By May 2022, after regular communication and liaison with the participants families, our committed and dedicated colleagues on the ground identified the most appropriate local schools to enroll the participants. The UK team raised the funds for tuition fees, uniforms, book and stationery, daily subsistence and transport. We continue to support their efforts and expect graduation by the end of 2024.  

After the COVID 19 pandemic, a lot of schools in the country were struggling to bring students up to scratch. Our participants fell victim to this gravely. Their schools had not been able ensure that they were ready for the pending exams as the Ghana Education Service had also significantly altered the school calendar. In addition, the parents of our candidates could not afford to provide the tutor for extra classes. It became apparent that we had to set up a bespoke set of evening classes to cover the gaps and do the needed revision to get them ready to succeed. There was discussion had between our colleagues in the both the UK and Ghana and some funds were provided to hire some tutors and some suitable premises where the students could attend and get up to speed. 

After 2 months of consistent evening classes, the S2S participants that undertook this vigorous process wrote their BECE finals with confidence and an improved probability of passing. After writing the examinations in October 2022, and months of waiting for the results, all participants got the desired results and were thereby placed in their Senior High Schools of choice (link to Instagram post).  After this success, we have now incorporated this process within the ‘Education’ pillar of impact to ensure that our Junior High School BECE candidates will be ready every year. 

This season posed various barriers to success, and thankfully the team, in conjunction with S2S coaches were able to overcome and iron out issues to enable success. 

One of the biggest challenges was that the team was reluctantly moved from their training base of over 20 years due to a government decision to sell the land. This resulted in a period of instability and chaos. The team hardly trained and often trained at ad hoc sites. Eventually they found a home at La Girls School – a pitch owned by the Presbyterian church of Ghana. The coaches and staff put in a great effort to reorganise the teams into various age groups to revive attendance. 

This U17 boys’ team started to display some unfavourable behaviours as a result of the chaos so initially getting the team together and creating the harmony and unity to perform proved to be a very challenging ordeal. Coaches had to make constant home visits, and many measures and consequences had to be put in place to ensure S2S values were adhered to. 

Finally, on a sporting level the pitches that the team had to train on were usually non-level dust pitches and unsuitable astroturf. This often-hampered Coach Bobby’s efforts to instil a style of play but with determination they preserved all the same. 

In summer 2024, the U17 boys’ team of BFSA (S2S sporting partner) successfully won the GFA Ga East District Juvenile league winning all games with only one loss. This success was achieved through various factors including discipline, unity and building skill. This feat served as a great piece of evidence and inspiration for the squad and greatly increased the self-esteem of the players.  Their efforts were clearly infectious as the U13 Boys team also had a commendable season by coming 2nd place and only falling short of winning by 1 point. 

The unprecedented trophy presentation for this league etched the S2S-Billa team into history. Their reputation as both athletes and individuals with the La Township also improved as previously there was and still is an unfortunate stereotype of children of that socio- economic background being stigmatized for truancy and vice. 

When Adae began to express his interests in becoming a referee he did not have appropriate clothing or equipment in otder to be able to referee matches. S2S were abke ti support Adae in provision of referee attire and equipment such as whistle,  notepads, red/yellow cards, footballs, offside flags, football boots etc.  

Encouragement building of self esteem confidence, mentoring, games that were difficult to referee and the S2S staff n the ground were able to provide emotional support regarding these challenges.  

Adjei was still keen on playng football and torn between whether to play or continue in his path in becoming a referee, through mentorship. Adae was still supported in playing in recreational footballing activities, howevver as he began to gain more experience in refereeing matches and with the added benefit of being involved in the catch them young programme and receiving some monetary sums for officiating games he eventually chose to be a refereee.  

Through S2S partnership with Bila Future Stars Adjei was able to officiate several matches in the Juvenile league and gain much experience and learnign through the practical experience of refereeing such matches.  

Adjei was able to progress successfully on the Catch them young programme and at the young age of 17 Adjei became professional referee in Ghana and working under CAF.  

An overwhelming majority of S2S participants parents/ guardians are day traders who rely on footfall of the public to make their income. With the nationwide lockdown in place, this means of income was totally halted and placed a huge financial burden on families. This caused both parents and children to become quite desperate and the need for a holistic approach was needed beyond our usual scope.  

There were concerns that some of the children may even succumb to participating in looting closed shops if there was no intervention in place. 

Over 100 S2S participants’ and families were provided with food and hygiene packages including salt, cooking oil, bags of rice, gari (ground cassava), pasta, beans, a range of vegetables and some tinned goods including sardines and tomato paste. In addition, hygiene products such as sanitisers, soap and face masks were also distributed. 

We ensured to educate and advise families about all protocols issued by the government and also gave some reiterated some important prevention methods such as frequent hand washing, social distancing and wearing masks. 

During this exercise, our S2S colleagues became enlightened about more extensive areas for delivery that needed to be incorporated into our objectives. Through the home visitations, we strengthened our relationship with parents/guardians, gained a better understanding of S2S participants and realized the integral need for collecting both qualitative and quantitative data of our participants with consent. 

Meeting these healthcare needs often required us to raise funds on short notice, which proved unsustainable and left us unable to respond effectively in emergency situations. While healthcare wasn’t part of S2S’s original mission, the growing demand within the La community and among our participants highlighted the necessity of providing some level of healthcare assistance. 

In January 2024, we hosted a mass National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) enrollment session in partnership with healthcare professionals and administrators from the local hospital. We were able to enroll nearly all S2S participants across all age groups. 

This initiative has provided them with access to basic medical care at no additional cost, as well as significant subsidies on procedures and medications. 

The need for our intervention was largely because their families could not afford to further their education due to their financial difficulties and complexities in the family home. There was also a risk of some of the participants falling behind in their formal education. In some unfortunate instances, some participants resist the support in favour of truancy and at times pose challenging behaviour.  

By May 2022, after regular communication and liaison with the participants families, our committed and dedicated colleagues on the ground identified the most appropriate local schools to enroll the participants. The UK team raised the funds for tuition fees, uniforms, book and stationery, daily subsistence and transport. We continue to support their efforts and expect graduation by the end of 2024.  

After the COVID 19 pandemic, a lot of schools in the country were struggling to bring students up to scratch. Our participants fell victim to this gravely. Their schools had not been able ensure that they were ready for the pending exams as the Ghana Education Service had also significantly altered the school calendar. In addition, the parents of our candidates could not afford to provide the tutor for extra classes. It became apparent that we had to set up a bespoke set of evening classes to cover the gaps and do the needed revision to get them ready to succeed. There was discussion had between our colleagues in the both the UK and Ghana and some funds were provided to hire some tutors and some suitable premises where the students could attend and get up to speed. 

After 2 months of consistent evening classes, the S2S participants that undertook this vigorous process wrote their BECE finals with confidence and an improved probability of passing. After writing the examinations in October 2022, and months of waiting for the results, all participants got the desired results and were thereby placed in their Senior High Schools of choice (link to Instagram post).  After this success, we have now incorporated this process within the ‘Education’ pillar of impact to ensure that our Junior High School BECE candidates will be ready every year. 

This season posed various barriers to success, and thankfully the team, in conjunction with S2S coaches were able to overcome and iron out issues to enable success. 

One of the biggest challenges was that the team was reluctantly moved from their training base of over 20 years due to a government decision to sell the land. This resulted in a period of instability and chaos. The team hardly trained and often trained at ad hoc sites. Eventually they found a home at La Girls School – a pitch owned by the Presbyterian church of Ghana. The coaches and staff put in a great effort to reorganise the teams into various age groups to revive attendance. 

This U17 boys’ team started to display some unfavourable behaviours as a result of the chaos so initially getting the team together and creating the harmony and unity to perform proved to be a very challenging ordeal. Coaches had to make constant home visits, and many measures and consequences had to be put in place to ensure S2S values were adhered to. 

Finally, on a sporting level the pitches that the team had to train on were usually non-level dust pitches and unsuitable astroturf. This often-hampered Coach Bobby’s efforts to instil a style of play but with determination they preserved all the same. 

In summer 2024, the U17 boys’ team of BFSA (S2S sporting partner) successfully won the GFA Ga East District Juvenile league winning all games with only one loss. This success was achieved through various factors including discipline, unity and building skill. This feat served as a great piece of evidence and inspiration for the squad and greatly increased the self-esteem of the players.  Their efforts were clearly infectious as the U13 Boys team also had a commendable season by coming 2nd place and only falling short of winning by 1 point. 

The unprecedented trophy presentation for this league etched the S2S-Billa team into history. Their reputation as both athletes and individuals with the La Township also improved as previously there was and still is an unfortunate stereotype of children of that socio- economic background being stigmatized for truancy and vice. 

When Adae began to express his interests in becoming a referee he did not have appropriate clothing or equipment in otder to be able to referee matches. S2S were abke ti support Adae in provision of referee attire and equipment such as whistle,  notepads, red/yellow cards, footballs, offside flags, football boots etc.  

Encouragement building of self esteem confidence, mentoring, games that were difficult to referee and the S2S staff n the ground were able to provide emotional support regarding these challenges.  

Adjei was still keen on playng football and torn between whether to play or continue in his path in becoming a referee, through mentorship. Adae was still supported in playing in recreational footballing activities, howevver as he began to gain more experience in refereeing matches and with the added benefit of being involved in the catch them young programme and receiving some monetary sums for officiating games he eventually chose to be a refereee.  

Through S2S partnership with Bila Future Stars Adjei was able to officiate several matches in the Juvenile league and gain much experience and learnign through the practical experience of refereeing such matches.  

Adjei was able to progress successfully on the Catch them young programme and at the young age of 17 Adjei became professional referee in Ghana and working under CAF.