Creating a healthier and safer world for children through the power of sport and play

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Our Programs

Problem

Children represent a very high percentage of the victims of war and preventable diseases. Yet, they are often at the bottom of the priority list in terms of services and support, and as a result, their development needs are not met. Poor health awareness amplifies the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities and hinders not only development on a local level but the development of a country’s capacity to build a healthy and vibrant workforce and civil society.

The Sport and Play Solution

Sport and play are also effective tools for mobilizing and educating communities around key health issues. Play provides a positive path to healthy child development. Sport can teach the positive behaviors of leadership, discipline, teamwork and fair play. The development of communities is enhanced when individuals have the capacity to act in ways that lead and build the community. Through a coach-based approach both individuals and their communities can learn valuable skills that will serve as catalysts for community development.

Right To Play's Unique Approach

Right To Play’s approach is unique in comparison to traditional humanitarian and development approaches in the following broad ways: 

  1. Emphasis on the power of sport and play as a vehicle of development.  Sport and play activities ensure significant levels of participation by individuals and communities, which traditional humanitarian and development approaches cannot necessarily achieve with such success. Once individuals and communities are mobilized through sport and play it is possible to incorporate a variety of other development initiatives through this forum, in particular in the areas of education and health. Right To Play collaborates with a variety of partners in each country to ensure a holistic development approach.
  2. The Right To Play delivery method is a value added approach to building the capacity of individuals and local organizations in each country of operation. The Right To Play in-field teams are led by International Volunteers who possess strong backgrounds in areas of sport training, management and planning, development experience and an understanding of the importance of collaboration among local organizations.  Through training workshops and on-going participation in the design of sport and play programs Right To Play provides a positive opportunity for community members to participate and learn to manage their own initiatives. 
  3. Athlete Ambassadors. Right To Play is supported by an international team of Olympic and professional athletes who generously donate their time to give back through sports. The support of these athletes inspires children and helps raise awareness of, and support for, the humanitarian potential of sport at both the local and international levels. Athlete Ambassadors in the countries where Right To Play operates are also an invaluable source of inspiration and motivation at the local level.
  4. Media Campaigns/ Social Mobilization Campaigns. Right To Play is a dynamic organization, which uses the popularity and convening potential of sport as a powerful tool for reaching people and communicating important messages through media, sport festivals, and other social mobilization strategies. These campaigns are strategically incorporated into planning at the country level. 

Programming Principals:

Right To Play’s main programming principles across all projects are:

Inclusion: each project shall include children who may be marginalized for reasons of gender, religion, ability, ethnicity, disability or social background.

Sustainability: training Local Volunteers and teachers as coaches and local leaders to build the community’s capacity to take full ownership of the program following Right To Play’s active project implementation.  Right To Play has handed over projects in Benin, Zambia (Mwange), and soon Uganda (Nakivale). 

Specific Programs:

Right To Play implements two specific programs: SportWorks and SportHealth. These programs are implemented by Right To Play’s team of trained International Volunteers working in close collaboration with Local Coaches and the local communities, and international, national and local partners.

1. SportWorks Program 

Key Objectives: 
Holistic Child Development- Right To Play uses sport and play programs to promote the healthy physical, social and emotional development of children that is essential to the future of healthy communities and the re-building of civil society, on a local and global level.

Individual and Community Capacity Building- Working closely with communities, Right To Play assists in the setup of the networks and infrastructure necessary to support sustainable local ownership of sport and play programs. We also train local youth to be coaches imparting leadership skills, and ensuring sustainability of the life skills emphasized by our program.

Primary beneficiaries of SportWorks projects are refugee children and communities, as well as communities seeking to re-integrate large numbers of former child combatants. Right To Play works with UNHCR, UNICEF and other partner organizations to identify new project locations.

2. SportHealth Program

The SportHealth program shares the same two objectives as the SportsWorks program with an added element .

Social Mobilization to Reduce the Incidence of Disease: Right To Play uses sport and play to mobilize communities around key health issues in a fun and social way specifically to support national health objectives and campaigns (e.g. vaccination campaigns and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention). SportHealth programs leverage the convening power of sport to provide health education and encourage healthy lifestyle behaviours.

Primary beneficiaries of SportHealth projects are youth and children, national ministries and respective communities. SportHealth projects are developed and run in partnership with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), UNICEF, the Measles Initiative, the CORE Initiative and numerous local partner organizations.

Core Training Modules

Right To Play’s approach involves both the implementation of core training modules, which are highly adaptable to the needs of the beneficiaries, and the strengthening of human and physical infrastructure. 

These modules include:

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