When a Community Football Journey in Sunyani Reached a Global Audience

Some moments arrive quietly, but leave you reflecting on an entire journey.

Last week was one of those moments for me.

Most people see organisations when they are receiving recognition, announcing partnerships, or sharing impact stories. What they do not always see are the years in between. The uncertainty. The setbacks. The funding applications that go nowhere. The programmes delivered with limited resources. The constant effort required to keep showing up for communities regardless of whether anyone is paying attention.

That is the reality for many grassroots organisations.

And it has certainly been part of ours.

So when I learned that Forsports Foundation had been selected through GlobalGiving as one of ten Ghanaian organisations connected to a global fundraising campaign featured by HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, it felt genuinely unexpected.

For a moment, it was difficult to process.

Not simply because of the size of the platform, but because of what it represented.

The campaign emerged from a celebration of Ghana’s internationally recognised hand-painted movie poster culture, a uniquely creative art form born from the country’s mobile cinema era and now admired around the world. Through the initiative, support was directed towards community organisations working across Ghana while introducing global audiences to an important part of Ghanaian cultural identity. hangjohnoliver.com

As I reflected on the moment, my mind travelled back years before Forsports Foundation existed.

Back to Belfast.

Back to a chapter of my life shaped by being adopted by the late George Christopher Forsythe and moving to Northern Ireland. It was there that I experienced football differently. Not only as a game, but as a community.

Football had a way of bringing people together regardless of background. It created belonging, identity, friendships, and opportunity.

Years later, during visits back to Ghana, I remember reaching out to Glentoran Football Club with a simple request. I wanted to know whether there were old football kits that could be donated and taken back to Sunyani to play with friends and young people during school holidays.

At the time, there was no master plan.

No organisation.

No funding strategy.

No expectation that a small conversation around football would eventually grow into a grassroots academy, later become Forsports Foundation, and one day be connected to a global television audience.

There was only a belief that young people deserved opportunity.

What began with football kits and informal community football gradually developed into the Glentoran Football Academy. Over time, the work expanded beyond sport itself and evolved into a wider platform focused on youth empowerment, education support, health and wellbeing, gender equality, safeguarding, life skills development, environmental awareness, and community development.

Looking back, it reminds me how often meaningful journeys begin with things that seem insignificant at the time.

A phone call.

A donated football.

A volunteer giving up their afternoon.

A young person discovering confidence.

A community choosing to believe in an idea.

The recognition connected to Last Week Tonight is meaningful, but not because it places our organisation in the spotlight.

It matters because it highlights something much bigger.

Across Ghana and across the world, there are grassroots organisations working every day with little visibility. They continue not because recognition is guaranteed, but because communities need them.

They continue because the work matters.

For me, this moment was not really about television.

It was about what becomes possible when people continue believing in a mission long enough for it to grow.

The support generated through the campaign will help strengthen our work and contribute to future opportunities. But perhaps even more importantly, it serves as a reminder that community-rooted organisations can reach global audiences without losing the values that shaped them in the first place.

This moment belongs to every coach, volunteer, staff member, supporter, partner, and young person who has been part of the journey.

It belongs to the communities that welcomed us.

It belongs to those who believed in the work when it existed only as a simple idea.

And it belongs to everyone who understands that football is never only about football.

Sometimes it is about belonging.

Sometimes it is about dignity.

Sometimes it is about creating opportunities where few exist.

And sometimes, if you stay committed long enough, a story that begins on a community football field in Sunyani can travel much further than you ever imagined.

Visit: www.forsportsfoundation.org to learn more about the project.