A note from GHDF: this is the first published account of work the founder funded personally in Sierra Leone before GHDF was restructured. A fuller story — including the Thomas Family running the facility, the coaches, the young athletes using it, and the long-term talent pathway — will be added through 2026 as the partnership is formalised under GHDF’s community development programme.
In Sierra Leone, talent does not depend on income. Opportunity often does.
For children growing up in regions where infrastructure is thin and household budgets are tight, the gap between athletic potential and athletic possibility is rarely about ability. It is about whether there is a field to play on, a coach to train with, equipment that works, and a structure that connects local talent to the next level — academies, scouts, professional clubs, and university pathways.
The sports facility GHDF’s founder funded in Sierra Leone — run by the Thomas Family in partnership with their local community — exists to close that gap.
What it is
The facility is a youth sports training centre, run by the Thomas Family and built to give children and young people in the local community a safe, equipped, structured environment to train in. It is designed not as a recreational space — though it serves as one — but as a development pathway: a place where coaches can identify children with athletic potential and connect them with the academies, scholarships, and professional opportunities that would otherwise be invisible to them.
This is a model that has worked, in different forms, across West Africa and around the world. Talented young athletes from low-income communities have moved into professional football, athletics, and other disciplines because someone, somewhere, built the first step of the ladder.
GHDF’s founder funded that first step in Sierra Leone — personally, privately, and several years before the foundation took on its current community-led structure.
Why this matters for community development
Sports facilities are not typically funded by health-and-education foundations, and we want to be honest about why GHDF backed this one.
For young people in under-resourced regions, organised sport is one of the few institutional pathways that:
- Keeps children in structured environments after school
- Provides adult mentorship from coaches and trainers
- Offers a measurable, performance-based route to scholarships, contracts, and incomes that can lift entire families
- Builds the kind of confidence, discipline, and team identity that translates into other areas of life
A child who becomes a professional athlete, or who earns a sports scholarship abroad, frequently becomes the financial and aspirational anchor for their extended family. That is community development, even if it doesn’t fit the conventional NGO category.
What we are not claiming
We are not publishing photos of children using the facility without parental and community consent. We are not naming individual young athletes who may go on to professional careers — that is their story to tell, not ours. We are not yet publishing detailed annual cost figures, because the partnership is currently being formalised under GHDF’s community development programme.
What we can confirm:
- The facility exists and is operational.
- It is run by the Thomas Family in Sierra Leone.
- It was made possible by direct funding from GHDF’s founder.
- It serves young people in the local community.
- GHDF intends to integrate the facility into its formal Community Development pillar, with ongoing donor support and transparent reporting.
How to support this work
If you are a donor, foundation, or corporate partner interested in funding sports-based youth development — in Sierra Leone specifically, or in similar contexts across West Africa — please write to [email protected]. We can share the operational details, the local team’s needs, and the funding structures we are putting in place.
This article is part of a series documenting the foundational charitable work that preceded GHDF’s current programme structure. Stories will be updated and expanded as we travel to programme sites and work with our community partners to share their experience directly.
