Right from the beginning, we were clear that we wanted to be as inclusive as possible when we were recruiting coaches and working with children.  It is unusual to see disabled children taking part in sport and this only adds to their social isolation and lack of opportunity.
 
We started by working with two excellent organisations in Burkina Faso: ABPAM, a school for the blind; and CEFISE, a school for hearing impaired children.  We ran football sessions for the children at both schools as well as giving them the opportunity to take part in art activites.  The response was overwhelming and we are working with the staff at these schools to ensure that this positive work continues.  
 
It's really important for young disabled people to have positive role models who prove that they can participate in sport just like able-bodied people.  With this in mind, we held our first "Coaching Disabled Footballers" course in Mali in July 2008, run by Steve Bartlett of the London Sports Forum and Nikki Richardson of Brighton and Hove Albion.

With our partner organisation FEMASH (The Malian Federation of Disabled Sportspeople) we took six disabled coaches and six FEMASH trainers through the five-day course.  It was a huge success and it has led us to begin work with the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation on a specially adapted course for use in Africa which can be used across all our programmes.

Blind kids shoot and score using a ball with a bell.