CAMEROON

Founded in 2006, PLAY SOCCER Cameroon (PSC) has 1,734 children registered at 11 community sites, with numbers increasing despite limited funds and resources.

Almost a third of the children registered are girls, and almost half of the 49 volunteer youth instructors at PSC are young women. Volunteer and community participation are important strengths of PSC's program. The presence of a mobile library has enhanced literacy and numeracy skills for children who participate in PSC's core sport-for-development program. The Rural Women's Environmental Protection Association (RWEPA) continues to be an important local partner, providing enthusiastic community support and healthy fruit snacks for the children.

GHANA

PLAY SOCCER Ghana (PSG) – launched in 2001 as the Network's first pilot program – has expanded from a single site with 100 children to 896 children currently registered at 12 sites in several regions across the country.

A sign of the growing recognition and support within Ghana for PSG's core program is the support of renowned former captain of Ghana's National Team, Tony Baffoe, who recently agreed to become a "Goodwill Ambassador" for PLAY SOCCER Ghana.

Wahab Musah, Program Manager at the Oguaa Football for Hope Centre reports that the target date to open the Centre in Cape Coast is now expected in early fall. PLAY SOCCER Ghana and PSNI will develop and manage the FFH Center, which will include a Community Computer Learning Center and a "Coaching The Whole Child" curriculum. A PLAY SOCCER Ghana core program is already thriving at the Centre and the new programs that will be integral to the Centre’s activities are actively in development and are creating strong attraction from the community.

MALAWI

PLAY SOCCER Malawi (PSM) is the fastest-growing and most populous program in the Network, with 4,560 children registered at just three sites.

An impressive 1,724 of PLAY SOCCER Malawi's registered children are young girls – giving PSM the largest female participation level in the Network. The program, launched in 2006 with 1,700 children, has grown rapidly in response to huge demand coming from the Blantyre and other regions. Since 2008, UNICEF has supported some of Malawi's program activities. The Scotland-based partner, Friends of PLAY SOCCER Malawi (www.friendsofpsm.org.uk) also provides generous and critical support to PSM, most recently through donations of nutritious snacks for the large numbers of participating children.

SENEGAL

Founded in 2006, PLAY SOCCER Senegal (PSS) has 600 children registered at six sites. PSS's program has pioneered a focus on helping bring the PLAY SOCCER program to transient children, who live without their parents, often work on the streets to support themselves, and come from different locations across Senegal. PSS is working closely with Koranic schools and other community organizations to make this possible. A sign of broad community support for PSS's leadership and contribution to vulnerable children and youth was the recent election of Mamadou Mbaye, one of PSS's exceptional site supervisors, as Mayor of the Grand Yoff community on the outskirts of Dakar.

SOUTH AFRICA

Established in 2003 with just one site, PLAY SOCCER South Africa (PSSA) now has nine sites in the Gauteng province with 1,074 children registered. Some 430 of these children are girls and more than half of PSSA's volunteer instructors are young women, giving PSSA the Network's highest level of female participation after Malawi. In addition to its core program, PSSA partners with UNICEF and the South Africa Ministry of Education to run a sports-based program that aims to engage children in schools and communities, reduce violence and enhance educational benefits. Community participation is a driving force at PSSA's sites in Gauteng where local groups including the South African Dental Association, Tembisa Social, and the Johannesburg Traffic Department lead programs on health and social topics, substance abuse, and road safety. PSSA currently benefits from the media spotlight and stimulus of the 2010 World Cup.

PSSA will be highly visible with a host team during the 2010 World Cup at its new program site in Alexandra, the venue for the "Football For Hope Festival For Youth," one of the World Cup's key official events for children and youth. GTZ/Youth Development Through Football is providing the funding for the new program site.

USA

PLAY SOCCER Appalachia (PSA) is the network’s newest program and the first outside Africa. It officially opened its doors in late January of 2011 at Trimble Elementary School, and is collaborating there with the Ohio University enrichment program, Kids-On-Campus, which operates after school to provide additional support to at-risk children. The startup program has approximately 40 children (about 40% girls) in grades 1-4. There are plans to expand PS Appalachia beyond Trimble Elementary and into the wider Trimble/Glouster/Jackson townships which serve the local school district. Adapting the program to the USA and Trimble school environment has necessitated changes in the program structure and topics (for example replacing the malaria topic with a bullying topic). Many of the Trimble children have never played soccer before so it is also an introduction of a new game! PS Appalachia received funding through grants from the US Youth Soccer Association and AmeriCorps from which it hired a Program Manager, Alicia ("Carm") Thompson, who is in the final year of acquiring her physical education degree from Ohio University. Another Program Manager, Kwabena Owusu-Kwarteng, a Ghanian graduate student at Ohio University, volunteered to help in getting PSA to a running start. PS Appalachia looks forward to the exciting times ahead for the program and its continued growth within the greater Appalachia community.

ZAMBIA

The PLAY SOCCER Zambia (PSZ) program, founded in 2003, has 2157 children registered. PSZ recently expanded from the Lusaka region to a new site in the Copperbelt region through a partnership with the Q-Fund, a non-profit organization which shares PLAY SOCCER's mission to empower vulnerable children and underserved communities. With Q-Fund support at an Ndola site, PSZ recently trained 24 new volunteer youth instructors and registered more than 150 new children in the core program. Zambian corporate partners include MTN, a telecommunications company which donated T-shirts for the children. PSZ has also launched a "backyard" social enterprise project in partnership with Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products (ASNAPP). ASNAPP and PSZ have joined forces to teach 20 PS youth how to cultivate the "miracle" Moringa tree, prized for its nutritional and medicinal value. PSZ has been selected as the Network's pilot program for a new partnership with the Moremi Initiative, an organization that engages, inspires and equips girls and young women to be Africa's next generation of leaders.