How we got started

CameroonFDP founder Justin Forzano first traveled to Cameroon in 2006 with the University of Dayton ETHOS Program. Over the next three years, he worked to design and construct a gravity-fed water supply system in Barombi Mbo, a village near the city of Kumba, in the South West Region of Cameroon. Each year Forzano traveled to Cameroon, he carried with him soccer equipment donated by friends and family from Wheeling, West Virginia. The people of Kumba were more than grateful to receive the goods.

In 2010, Peter Ngwane, long-time friend of Forzano, mobilized a team of young adults and began assessing the current situation of youth in Kumba. Results from initial surveys and conversations with local stakeholders indicated a void in recreational activities and effective health and social education programs. An emergence in sport for development program across the African continent gave the team the confidence to proceed in developing and launching Cameroon Football Development Program (CameroonFDP). That summer saw 100 youth come together from around the city of Kumba for a week of soccer drills and lessons about many important issues facing Cameroonian youth. We began growing our roots in the Kumba soil to serve as the foundation for sustainability.