Winneba United, a community development football club, takes its root from Challenging Heights.
Challenging Heights is a development organization founded ten years ago to support the education of vulnerable children, and women, in Ghana, especially in communities affected by child trafficking. www.challengingheights.org.
Since its inception, Challenging Heights has rescued hundreds of children from slavery in Ghana.
In the year 2014, the Board of Challenging Heights decided to separate its football program from its core programs.
Football, though seen as important tool for the eradication of poverty and child slavery, the program was getting bigger than the organization could afford, hence the need to allow it to be run by a different grass root group, and that is why Winneba United was formed, by the people and for the people.
Winneba United, based in Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana, began to assume independent identity from the beginning of the year 2015.
Currently it is exploiting the football talents of over 100 young people between the ages of eight and 24, grouped under different levels.
The main aims for the establishment of Winneba United are to use football as a development tool, including educational development, reducing poverty and vulnerability, reducing child trafficking, improving livelihoods, promoting health and sanitation, and fostering peace and unity within Winneba and its surrounding towns.
Winneba is a coastal fishing and farming community. It is home to the main campus of the University of Education, and Winneba Secondary School. Yet illiteracy and poverty amongst the indigenous fishing population is unbelievably high.
It is estimated that Winneba ranks second only to Senya as far as child trafficking to Lake Volta is concerned. Women and children, over the last five decades, became victims of modern slavery, being bought and sold, some as little as $2, for the purposes of exploitation on Lake Volta.
The result of this modern slavery industry has been large illiteracy, poverty, and despondency.
There have been many interventions, from Ghana government, and organizations such as Challenging Heights to tackle the menace of child trafficking, and to reduce vulnerability.
For instance Winneba benefitted from the Government�s program on capitation grant, National Health Insurance Program, and the hailing school feeding program.
Challenging Heights has had massive impact in the area, paying for the education of several hundreds of children to go to school, and supporting several hundreds of women to improve upon their economic circumstances.
While these interventions have helped to improve school access and quality, there is still a huge gap between communities affected by trafficking, and communities which have not been affected by child trafficking.
For instance, while children not affected by trafficking are completing basic schooling at age 13, those affected by trafficking are completing basic schooling at an average age of 20, with many of them abandoning school midway.
These communities possess the potential for exponential growth and development. What they need is a space to test their resilience, platforms of mobilization, around issues and activities that interests them. And football, being the biggest sport in Ghana, has been the best vehicle for mobilization.
In the last six weeks, Winneba has witnessed massive football festival organized by Winneba United to honor an unknown hero, Mr. R. C. Ekem, the Managing Director of Ekem Art Pottery Ltd, Winneba. Mr. Ekem, once upon a time, was a lifeline to many individuals and organizations in Winneba.
There have been massive attendance at these football games, spanning several thousands of spectators each week. Several petty traders sold their wares to spectators. Many have been selling water, drinks, pastries, and a lot of local snacks. This tournament will end Sunday September 13, 2015, where the winner will be presented with a trophy and GHC2,000.
Winneba has had, and still has its fair share of football clubs. The strongest, and the most supported team so far has been the defunct Winneba Advanced Stars.
But none of the teams focused on community development, and none of them made it to the premiere division.
Winneba United is a grass-root development oriented club. But would it make it to the premiere division? The next five years will tell its own stories.
Moving forward, Winneba United plans to play in a lot of grass-root competitions, including the division two league, and to attract over 10,000 spectators to the Winneba United park each week. We estimate this will provide employment for over 200 women in the community, and increase the income levels of the people of Winneba. We will continue with our strong publicity strategy to, not only market the individual players, but also to market the team, and the Winneba community both nationally and internationally.
We can only achieve these results if we have mass following, and if we appropriately engage in national and international networking. We will be effective if the people of Winneba see in the team community ownership, strong leadership, and innovative approaches.
To begin the process of ensuring community ownership and goodwill, the symbol and the colors of Winneba United has been carefully selected to reflect the cultures, the believes, and aspirations of the community.
The Deer in the Winneba United logo represents the most cherished and cultural festival of the people of Winneba � the Deer Hunting festival. This festival, locally known as Aboakyer, is celebrated on the first Saturday of the month of May each year.
It comes with colorful expression of faith, culture, and celebration. Thousands of people mass themselves up in the native forest in two separate companies in search of the festive deer. Whichever group arrives first with a deer is declared victors of the festival.
The colors, red and white, in the logo represents the colors of the two main rival Asafo companies of the Winneba people, Tuafo and Dentsefo. The colors of Tuafo are blue and white, while the colors of Dentsefo are red and yellow.
So the Winneba United logo picked the red in Dentsefo, and the white in the Tuafo colors to represent the Effutu State.
Winneba is originally and still known as Simpa. The language spoken by Simpa people is called Effutu, a dialect of the Guan language group. Effutu spoken by the people of Winneba (Simpa), Senya spoken by the people of Senya, Awutu spoken by the people of Awutu Breku and Bawjiase, and Anum spoken by some groups in the Akwapim areas of the Eastern Region, are all some of the mutually intelligible languages within the Guan group.
Winneba is heavily influenced by dominantly Fante speaking towns such as Cape Coast, Mankessim, Swedru, and several minor Gomoa and Assin villages, and that makes virtually every Effutu person also able to speak Fante.
To the Extent that some Effutu people have made Fante their first language because of the surrounding influence. That is why a lot of people believe the people of Winneba are Fantes.
Winneba is one of the most peaceful towns in Ghana, and it is a land of festivals. Apart from the Aboakyer festival, we also celebrate Akomase festival alongside the people of Senya.
Akomase is a period when the dead are remembered, and this festival is preceded by massive artificial crying, and wailing, to not only signal the lifting of the ban on noise-making, but also reminds us of the dead, and to commence the festive celebration. Admittedly, the Akomase festival has remained dormant for a while now. Time to act? We will see.
The Winneba Masquerading festival, also known as Fancy Dress, is still one of the most patronized, most anticipated and the most colorful of all festivals in Ghana.
It comes with dress in its pure creativity, matching variety, jaw-dropping superior group dancing skills, with Sacramodu in full participation, attracting thousands of spectators every year, precisely 1st January each year.
This festival is also very competitive amongst four groups � Nobles, Agyaa, Tumus, and Red Cross. There are prizes for winners of the four-phase competition, but also there is a pride to be protection.
So dancers go every length to create color, dance, arrangements, and if possible create controversy � the spice of the festival.
So no, Winneba does not have a lot of natural resources, but we have Winneba United, we have our festivals, and we have our peace!
For more information on Winneba United, please visit www.winnebaunited.org, or you can follow us on Facebook, and Twitter.
Winneba United, united as one!
James Kofi Annan
<<Print>>