Jahswill Emmanuel

In the years that I have known Jahswill he has always welcomed our community with open arms. Each year he holds many football tournament and various sports competitions to enable us to interact and play with other communities in Northern Ireland. He is well known with governing bodies and has work alongside side them for many years and any educational or sporting qualifications available he makes us aware. I am the captain of the Ghanian Football Team here in Northern Ireland Jahswill has on many occasions secured a pitch for us to train on, secured sponsorship for our team so we could purchase kits for our players as some of us don’t have much money. He also volunteers himself to help transport players to and from the field for either training sessions or matches. He has had coaches come and train our team in which they provided us with tricks and tips to perform when on the field. Who we are today wouldn’t be possible without Jahswill as he is always supporting us and providing ways and possibilities in bettering our team whether its through coaching or educational coaching qualifications.

BAME communities here in Northern Ireland feel pretty isolated as they feel that they have no sense of belonging and Jahswill brings us all together through sporting activities from tennis, table tennis, basketball to football we integrate and socialize with many communities. During this whole pandemic we are facing Jahswill had many of events lined but unfortunately had to put those on hold and instead he focused on how he was going to be able to support the local BAME, Ethnic minorities and refugees/ Asylum seekers.

So far he has supported and aided over 500 families with food packs, toiletries, gas, electric, mobile phone top ups(All in which he has physically delivered with the aid of the organisations volunteers), provided laptops to enable youth to complete school work, has held mental health, leadership and capacity building workshops, healthy eating programs alongside exercise programs online via zoom to name a few. His work is endless and goes above and beyond for our communities all of these activities were funded by Community Foundation NI, The Executive office, Belfast City Council, Cooperate Ireland, Migrant center NI to name a few in which he works tirelessly to secure funding so that are communities continue to be supported during this global pandemic.

Jahswill is a great leader and mentor within BAME communities and I feel no one deserves this award more than him. Having a family and other commitments of his own he still finds time to support and initiate programs to enable us to integrate in society but during this whole pandemic he is always putting us first no matter who reaches out to Jahswill he will do everything in his power whether we are new or old migrants. He is a great ambassador as he is constantly encouraging our youth to partake and to become involved in programs to better their education and give them qualifications to succeed in life.

Jahswill is constantly encouraging others to become involved promoting integration through sports in Northern Ireland and its always done with a smile, he is a true ambassador for the BAME communities as without him we wouldn’t have a voice. Just recently he established the first BAME and Ethnic minority drop in centre where our members now have a safe place to reach out and get support when needed.’ Overall he is inspirational role model and continues to show true dedication in our communities.