Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability
An Economic Empowerment of Youth in Sports:
The Project that is going to basically identify those Youth from different locations who by nature still have the potential of working for a meaningful future and select them for a continuous engagement into the project activities.
We therefore initiated a project that could empower such Youth in Sports with both financial literacy skills and resources so as to avert persistent challenges in their livelihoods. The project intends to be progressive in phases of three years each and has a series of activities within to basically soot the needs of the targeted group for the project.
About You
About You
First Name
Mwanje
Last Name
Yusuf
sports eye uganda
Facebook Profile
sportseyefoundationuganda
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Sports Eye Foundation Uganda
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+256776840077
Organization Address
Kampala, Uganda
Organization Country
Uganda, KMP
Country where this project is creating social impact
Uganda, KMP
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability
What change do you want to bring to the world?
An Economic Empowerment of Youth in Sports:
The Project that is going to basically identify those Youth from different locations who by nature still have the potential of working for a meaningful future and select them for a continuous engagement into the project activities.
We therefore initiated a project that could empower such Youth in Sports with both financial literacy skills and resources so as to avert persistent challenges in their livelihoods. The project intends to be progressive in phases of three years each and has a series of activities within to basically soot the needs of the targeted group for the project.
What are the primary activities of your project?
The Project Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability is to has a variety of activities to involve in order to achieve its objectives as identified below:-
1. Identification and Formation of Youth – Sports Groups.
A selection of Youth is conducted on a basis of the project phases to participants from different regions and districts of the Country to get them involved in the project activities.
1. Financial literacy seminars and Workshops.
This is aimed at empowering the Youth with financial skills and knowledge before opportunities of financial resources are forwarded to them
2. Youth in Sports interventions / dialogues with the Private / Sponsorship Sector.
We intend to organize a series of collective dialogues and attract the private sector as well as some Government institutions in fundraising funds that could be used to implement some project activities.
3. Establishing of Project income Investments.
The Project intends to create intermediate activities that can generate funds that will sustain and provide additional financial assistance to the activity projects that shall be created.
4. Development of Youth Projects.
Projects that will yield tremendous incomes shall be established. Such projects include (Cattle rearing, Chicken rearing, and Banana Cultivation amongst others).
5. Establishment of a Money Lending Scheme to the identified Youth in the project activities.
From the accumulations of funds by the projects, a scheme of Money lending shall be developed for access to the Youth identified and involved in the Projects.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
The Project is innovative in such following ways:-
1. The whole project is going to be the first of its kind in the Country Uganda. And it will thus be a center of attraction and reference to both the Government and other development agencies in the Country and abroad.
2. The Project is to make Youth in Communities become workers and investors alongside their Sports carriers in a way that the project is to use the same Youth in Sports as a source of labor.
3. The project is going to give them enough time to improve their Sports talents as well as expanding their financial potential. The project activities are designed in a way that there will be room for participants to work as well as engage in sports.
4. The project is innovative in a way that it is going to inter link the Youth in Sports fraternity with the business and Government financial institutions which aspect has been existing with very big gaps of relationship.
5. The Project is intended to address and cover Youth in Sports from different districts and regions for an equal benefit. The four regions each with more than five districts shall be involved in the Project activities.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
The Community that we engage is composed of Youth in Sports from the age of 13 to 30 years. During the General Elections of 2011, Youths formed 70% of the eligible voters and perhaps contributed a bigger percentage in the Country’s decision making than the other categories of childhood and adulthood.
Politically, Youth have Political representations in Parliament basing on the four regions in the Country. Coupled to this there is a Government Youth structure called the National Youth Council and each Parish and Sub Country has a Youth representative at such Local Level management engagements.
The average Economic status of Youth in the Country is very low because half of them have acquired education to higher levels. Most of the Youth who indulge in Sports are armature athletes and don’t have any earning from it but instead play and just waste there Sports talents with time. There has been a global challenge of catering opportunities for the female Youth.
Almost every Sub Parish has got a Sports facility though poorly developed and structures. This gives a chance to a majority of Youth and Children to engage and participate in Sports.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
The Project Youth in Sports for self sustainability was founded by Mwanje Yusuf who is the vision bearer of Sports Eye Foundation Uganda and is a Sports practitioner as well as a participant at National league level in the disciplines of Handball and Basketball. He is currently 24 years of age.
From Childhood, he has been involved in Sports as a participant as well as an enthusiast. He has studied Secondary level on Sports merit. He got admitted to Makerere University under the Sports merit to study a bachelor’s degree of Science in Sports Science. While at the University, he was a representative of the University to the Handball federation and the Football federation.
He was the assistant Captain of the University Handball club and further became a University Chairperson of the Sports and Games Union.
With the persisting calls of Youth economic empowerment, unavailability of collective Youth educational opportunities, continuous Youth engagements in Sports yet earn nothing from the time spent, limited and inadequate job opportunities amongst others inspired the founder to initiate the Project with a hope of changing Youth lives to meaningful ones as well as acting as an example to the concerned Youth bodies to reflect and focus at the creative industry as one entity that can address Youth concerns.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
The Project Youth in Sports is intended to last for a period in phases for three Years each. However, it is currently starting its first activity of identifying and forming Youth – Sports groups in the different regions and locations.
1. The Sports – Youth Seminars will be evaluated by being able to organize a series of Seminars in at least five locations in a District.
2. The Youth in Sports interventions / dialogues with the private / sponsorship sector will be measured with the number of private / business actors as well as Government institutions that will have got involved in the progressive support to the project activities.
3. The establishment of project income investments will be measured with the number of food and snack kiosks and restaurants developed at various Sports grounds identified for the project and their income impact to the identified projects.
4. Development of projects activity will also be measured by the capability of different groups to establish a Project from the collected incomes of the kiosks and restaurants. Further still, the progression and the income impact of that particular project will also be used as a measuring tool.
5. The Provision of Money lending Scheme will be measured basing on the impact and result that members personal projects will produce.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
The Project Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability is to evolve in phases of three years. For this particular project, the identified activities above are expected to be carried out and the rest of the other phases will be to ensure the progress of the developed activities.
The Project will evolve over the next three years in a way that, the financial income / outcomes from the developed projects will be used to provide financial assistance to all registered members for the Project benefits for their personal initiatives and investments.
Further still, we intend to attract as many private sector actors in supporting the initiates as well as purchasing some of the products produced from the Projects to markets like the East African Market.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The Project Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability just like any other initiative is subjected to meet some barriers that might hinder its success as described below:-
1. A big number of Youth seeking for an involvement that could not match with our financial capability and service wise.
However we anticipate overcoming this barrier by sticking to the registration regulations of involving or adding members as per our capabilities.
2. Funds to adequately facilitate the financial literacy Seminars and Workshops:
The Seminars and Workshops mean some financial implications and the threat here is that the fact that the project financial facilitation has no allocated budget or funds but just contributions from concerned well-wishers and institutions. This incidence is expected to be overcame by increasing engagements of the private sector actors and concerned Government institutions in the support of the project activities and objectives
3. Failure for the participants in the seminars to understand the financial concepts taught and a failure to apply them during the projects. This hindrance will however be addressed by providing qualified and experienced trainers from higher levels of learning institutions as well as competent financial institutions. Further still, there will be a monitoring team towards the progress of the project to ensure that the participants fully put what they learnt into action.
Tell us about your partnerships
The Project Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability has created and is to create more partnerships to ensure the progress of the project activities.
We have so far created Partnership with the National Sports Federations which are responsible of Youth athletes for the benefits of the project and so far, more than 10 Sports federations have confirmed there involvement into the project activities.
We have also created a Partnership with (1000 investors (an NGO that provides financial literacy knowledge and skills for young people to be able to intervene in the investment climate of the Country).
During the Sports activities we organize, we have been so much into close relationship with companies in the private sector for sponsorship and have created a good image to companies like Coca Cola Uganda. It through these images created that we intend to bring on board these private sector actors in the support of this initiative.
We further intend to make partnerships with some Government Youth structures and institutions as well as Government financial institutions so as to seek and access funding for the later project activities.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$250,001‐500,000
Explain your selections
Our selections for the Project Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability are purely based on non secretarian, tribal and religious affiliations.
Selections are made basing on regions and districts within the Country. However, our first selection is conducted in the Central region and Kampala district in particular.
Participant’s selections are made from the first activity of the project (identification and development of groups). A group is formed basing on the location and is designed to select 50 participants to be indulged in the activity.
The Project is however expecting to have 20 groups for with an estimate total of 1,000 Youth participants for the start of the Project in its phase one and therefore intends to add on the number during phase two.
The criterion for selection has a few qualifications which include:-
1. One has to be a Youth of age 13 to 30 years of age.
2. One must have at least a Sports background.
3. One has to be committed to run with the Project until the end of its activities.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
The Project Youth in Sports for Self Sustainability is expected to be curried out in phases of three years each. Plans of strengthening the Project over the next three years relies basically on the progress and impact of the activities in the first phase because we expect the earlier developed activities to self fund and facilitate the next activities as well the following.
1. We intend to strengthen the Project for the next three Years by employing qualified Youth staff members in the administration of each group formed in the different regions and Districts.
2. We also intend to provide and improve on the ICT facilities to the Youth to improve on the Marketing processes, information and Project implementation in the different locations where projects have been put.
3. We also plan to improve and strengthen on our income from the projects by creating more market opportunities of selling goods and commodities from the project locally and abroad to the neighborhoods.
4. We also intend to attract the Government through its organs and its Ministries to intervene more in the Project and entice them to take full responsibility at providing financial assistance to the Project since it is also in efforts of looking for viable means of how to make Youths in the Country have a meaningful life and getting employed.
With the above prospects, we highly believe that if the Project meets the identified plans, it will therefore have life time successive trends that will alleviate the most challenging situations to the Youth in the Country.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of visibility and investment
SECONDARY
Lack of skills/training
TERTIARY
Lack of access to information and networks
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
The identified barriers are tackled as below during the innovation:-
1. The lack of access to information and Network.
The project intends to provide seminars and lectures during the second activity of the first phase and provide qualified and efficient presenters to acquire the basic knowledge for the project and how business can operate alongside Sports carriers’ in order to provide information.
2. The barrier of Lack of visibility and investment is to be solved I a way that the designed sequence of the project activities, we intend to make the participants empowered to create small investments as groups and later progress to larger investments as groups and finally develop personal investments on their own after acquiring business skills of operation.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Multi-country
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
1. Influence other Organizations and Institutions through the spread of best practices. The project through a series of its activities wishes to influence Organizations and Institutions through the spread of the project best practices of Youth involvement in the Project activities.
Organizations like (1000 investors Uganda, Uganda Youth Network, the National Youth Council, the Ministry of Youth and Gender, the Private sector Uganda) amongst others are to be influenced in supporting such Youth in Sports initiatives.
2. We have a current and planned initiative of extending the project activities to almost all parts and corners of the Country and enable Youths from Countries of the East African Community facing such challenges to emulate and have a change in their Communities.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
We have contacted the Commissioner at the Ministry of Youth, Gender and Children upon such initiative and promised to present such an aspect to the Ministry for assistance and further link us to other Government relevant institutions for our cause.
We have collaboration with the Civil Society Organizations like Uganda Youth Network, Students for Global Democracy in Uganda that we have created a collation voice call for Youth to embrace the initiative as well as linking us to some Youth who qualify for the project that we hadn’t identified earlier.
The collaborations of the not for profit Organizations like 1000 investors Uganda has helped us in providing some free lectures to the Youth in Sports on issues of financial literacy and skills.
 | 31 weeks agoJoshua Bailey said: Great initiative Yusuf. I am presently executing a project with similar elements. I think we can learn a lot from each other. The Swim ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 50 weeks agoNgom Sobel said: I think it's a very interesting program Yusuf. Great feedbacks Jen. about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 53 weeks agoJen Ko said: I think this sounds like a great program to support youth on a long term basis. Could you give more detail to the kinds of resources you ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 53 weeks agoSports Eye Foundation Uganda updated this Competition Entry. |
| 53 weeks agoSports Eye Foundation Uganda submitted this idea. |
