Kenya based Green Sports Africa in collaboration with Mastercard Foundation organized a one-day workshop for grassroot coaches in Ghana.
The event which took place at the Accra Sports Stadium on Friday, July 8, 2022 aimed at building the capacity of these upcoming coaches in ways to deal with with the COVID-19 pandemic challenges and offer solutions to them.
The workshop was attended by over 20 coaches in and around the Greater Accra region where they also learned about the importance of getting vaccinated.
The theme for the seminar is “Take The Shot” which implies the need to get the COVID-19 vaccination and also encourage other people to take the jab serious.
George Ouma, who is Co-founder of Green Sports Africa speaking at the forum said this about how grassroot teams can be able to attract sponsorship.
“Sponsors, organizations and NGOs look for positive brands to associate themselves with. In some countries in Africa, the government make it mandatory for some organization to give back but most of the countries that is not the case.
“So how do we compete with this bigger clubs like Asante Kotoko, Hearts of Oak and others? The way to compete, we have to ask ourselves as coaches, as grassroot teams, what value to you add to that specific organization.
“This is important because in Africa unfortunately we have been having these narratives of always seeking for help. It’s time for us to say, I can help you too, but if I help you too, this is what I require from you, that is how we negotiate.
“That is how you add value to this sponsors. And when you do that, then it might be more difficult for them to terminate or not to extend their contract when it expired. Because there’s a value that you are adding.
“He added that the coaches are the brand of the grassroot teams, i.e how they appear, the way they speak and how they do their things will make the organization or co-operative to listen to them.
Coaches who attended the one-day workshop were presented with Mastercard Foundation branded jerseys for their respective teams.
