The academy is based in Tombo, a small fishing village about an hour away from Freetown (of course this is dependent on traffic and road conditions, apparently it has taken 8 hours before!!)
Just as you head into Tombo you turn up a bare dirt track which has got to be the bumpiest “road” I’ve ever been on! The track takes you up through several schools and past the local football field - a bare dirt area with a couple of goal posts set up.
The sign for the Academy in Tombo:
The dirt track to the Academy:
After a short while the dirt track opens out onto a huge field. At the far side of this field are the Craig Bellamy Foundation Academy gates.
The view up to the Academy:
I wasn’t really sure what to expect but as it was after lunch time all the boys were in lessons so it was very quiet. Despite driving through the mountains to reach to Academy I was still completely stunned at the setting of the setting. The Academy sits right at the foot of the mountain range so has stunning views of the mountains to the rear and the sides, and the front looks straight out to sea.
As you come through the gates the football pitch is on the right hand side and the buildings up ahead, quite a distance from the pitch. The Foundation has a fair bit of land so there is real potential for future expansion as well.
The view from the football pitch:
The buildings are bright white so really stand out against against the dark brown/terracotta earth and the blue green of the mountains.
There are 5 main buildings and a few smaller buildings and outhouses. The main buildings are the Canteen, the apartment block,the classroom block, the office and the kitchen.
The Canteen is the old dormitory block. Everyone eats breakfast, lunch and dinner here and the boys use it for homework time.
Behind the Canteen are two smaller buildings which are the Office and the Kitchen. The Office is the main hub for the volunteers to work from when they aren’t teaching or coaching. It’s split into two rooms, the teaching and fundraising staff side, and then the football staff side. Its hard to believe it now but before the classroom block was built, the larger part was the classroom and all the volunteers crammed into one side!
The kitchen is also split into two parts, the actual kitchen and the storage area. The storage area used to be the canteen when the academy first opened but the number of boys attending has more than doubled since then!
The two newer blocks are the classrooms and the apartment/dormitory block.
The classroom block is set slightly away from the normal living area and has several large classrooms and the beginnings of a library which will be great for the kids.
The apartment block has only recently been completed. The bottom half houses all the boys with a large bathroom and the top half has apartments for the staff and volunteers.
The Apartment block:
The Canteen and the Apartment Block with the mountain range backdrop:
The view at the back of the Academy:
The view at the front of the Academy with the classrooms to the right:
First on the agenda was a cold shower and to get changed! By now it was mid afternoon and it had been a very long and hot morning!
Once I’d showered and changed it was time to meet the volunteers and get to see the boys who had finished classes for the day and were getting ready for football training.
The boys seemed pretty shy at first but I would soon find out that for the majority that’s not the case!
