'Kicking 4 Change' to help Ghana kids
It hasn't just been football coaching on the agenda in Ghana this week.
While Kop legend Ian Rush and a team of Liverpool community coaches have spent hours in the scorching Accra sun spreading the message of the Liverpool way, another coaching team have been helping Standard Chartered launch yet another initiative - Kicking 4 Change.
Using the power of football to help address key social issues, the four strong team from Coaches Across Continents joined the Reds delegation in Ghana to begin delivering financial literacy lessons on the pitch.
"We have taken everything out of the classroom and put it on the football field," explained Nick Gates from Coaches Across Continents, a non-profit organisation that uses football as a vehicle for social development.
"We work with more than 15 communities in Africa where we address the social needs of each individual community and design a football based curriculum which can help them.
"There are so many social problems around the world and we are delighted to have partnered with Standard Chartered to help deliver Kicking 4 Change which will cover life skills and financial literacy.
"Here in Ghana we have been using football to help kids learn about financial skills. We set up a game on the field with four goals and the kids have to identify what they would spend money on if they had that money. The idea is to achieve those goals by scoring, while the other team tries to defend the goal.
"It's more fun to learn about financial management, budgets and that kind of thing on the football field as opposed to in the classroom. Here in Ghana a lot of people are still using cash from their pockets and by doing that they're not able to secure business loans or buy houses. We want to take the stigma away from banking and we're using football to help with that change.
"Signing up with Standard Chartered to help deliver this project is fantastic, as is the link-up with Liverpool. I am sure Kicking 4 Change will be a big success."
Kicking 4 Change was officially launched at the Lizzy Sports Complex - owned by local hero Marcel Desailly - in Accra at the start of day two of the LFC soccer clinics in the Ghanaian capital.
"It's fantastic to see Standard Chartered involved in another great project which can help give kids a better future," said Reds' ambassador Ian Rush.
"It's all about making things fun for kids and the idea of teaching them basic life skills using football is great as far as I'm concerned.
"We all know that not everyone is going to make it as a professional footballer and that's why it's so important they are given as much help as possible when it comes to making the decisions which could have such a big impact on their lives. If they can learn some key skills while playing football, enjoying themselves and keeping fit and healthy at the same time, then that's fantastic."