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Our Story

Abdul Razak Umar Kasim, a social entrepreneur, a life coach and a talent development officer, didn’t receive his nickname ‘Romario’ for no reason. He has been known for playing football in his local community, Mamobi in Accra and gain a lot from the game, finding friendship in his teammates and learning important life skills like teamwork and discipline. His dream was to play a professional football but due to circumstances beyond his control, he couldn’t pursue his dreams of becoming a Pro.

When growing older, he developed so much love for working with children and wanted to give back to the game that gave him so much joy. He has been active in schools and community sports programs for over 20 years and has also participated in several workshops in Ghana and abroad.

When meeting YETS Foundation founder Peter Ottens from The Netherlands during his visit to Ghana in 2011, the two connected on their vision of how to implement sports as a social tool: Youth at risk don’t necessarily lack sports activities, they lack positive role models who provide a safe space they can belong to and develop themselves in independent participators of society.

Abdul Razak is a Co-Founder and Director for YETS Ghana.

In 2015 YETS Foundation started the Shakers Basketball Academy in Anwiankwanta (Ashanti Region) at the SOLA Children Home. More than 80 children both from SOLA and the community participated in the project that implemented the YETS Methodology adjusted to the Ghanaian culture. Since the beginning of the Shakers Basketball Academy we’ve seen a tremendous progress: improvement in self-belief, positive behaviour and better academic performance. Some of the children received athletic scholarships to enrol at some of the first-class senior high schools in the country and one in university.

In 2019 Razak and his team founded YETS (Youth Empowerment Through Sports) Ghana as a locally driven NGO using sports as a tool to empower vulnerable youth, guide them towards a positive role in society and prevent social exclusion. YETS strives to provide youth the tools needed to succeed in society and make a positive contribution to their community. As for now, the Shakers Basketball Academy is still active at SOLA Children’s Home. In the future the project will move to the YETS Ghana Community Centre in Anwiankwanta. Thanks to both local and Dutch sponsors the construction of the community centre is currently in process.

More information about the Shakers Basketball Academy:

https://youtu.be/fnFjMnL2JiU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PPRypaNCrI

 

Our Mission

Mission

We believe that sport’s mass appeal makes it the perfect vehicle for teaching young people about critical issues that affect their lives.

YETS Ghana Team

Aaron Asare Okai

Assistant Coach

Razak Kasim

Programma Coördinator

Arianne van Rijn

Ondersteuning YETS Ghana

Alexander Takyi

Head Coach

About The Methodolodgy

The Dutch YETS-method (Youth Empowerment Through Sports) aims to stimulate social-emotional development for children in disadvantaged environments. The YETS-coach as an authoritative role model has a key-role. YETS tries to target these goals by focusing on three pillars: sports (in this case basketball), education (homework tutoring and life skills training) and social integration (e.g. events in the community to increase awareness about their living environment).