Desporto Da Vida - Sport Gives Life
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Sport
Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2007
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
http://www.flmutola.org.mz
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Sport is trivialized
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Use sport to build character
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
For the Y (Insight) axis this program would add two things: 1- Competition as the driver for personal change: Sport and healthy competition creates reflection about what it takes to be the best, at the highest levels, with the Maria Mutola’s of the world, it is the right carb intake and training, for us it is using the will to win to get better and more interested in training and having an attitude about your health and life off the field. 2- Corporate social Responsibility as a catalyst: for change through sports. The positioning of the program does not change; the intersection of sport being trivialized and sport building character would not change, but, the two mediums for this change – one for the individual and one for the program – are competition and CSR.
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
A comprehensive training for coaches that fosters player's life-skills using the competitive edge of soccer and their motivation to create champions in sports and life.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
The idea enhances by taking seriously the most popular past time in Mozambique. It builds on the community and individual initiatives that already exist around soccer, by creating a holistic way to develop the best team and player. Coaches don’t just coach for fun, but they want to win. To win they need a good team, and to have one you need good players. The program uses the coach’s will to win to change player’s attitudes about health, in particular HIV and Malaria. The manual, made explicitly for coaches working with 8-16 year olds, introduces games that help to create a STAR! Player by developing the skills needed: on/off the field. To make the program sustainable, it has a corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign called “Passa Bola” (Pass the Ball) where private sector companies purchase the brand with percentages of certain products or through a lump sum. The campaign then provides for use of the slogan, marketing and soccer materials.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
Mozambique is a segmented society due to the past decades of war. During the communist-era, sports were strong. Recently, several programs have tried to utilize games as the delivery mechanism for life-skills and health messages and have been met with skepticism. Athletes and coaches alike feel that games with messages deviate from sports by adding information, and because of this, the new games are not utilized; players and coaches do not want to play games, they want to practice sports, particularly soccer.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
The delivery methodology is the manual, training, support and materials. The training last a week and teaches coaches to use the manual and how to structuring of soccer practices that develop a players collective and individual skills and their attitude about health. This way we are making players better at soccer (which is what they essentially want) while also inserting all the off-the-field information (HIV, malaria) by changing the focus. The goal for the player and coach is to be the best player or have the best team, therefore, to do this, the players must be healthy, have the right attitude and the right off-the-field skills. Then we support the coaches for each to sustain several different teams with weekly practices by making sure that the balls that they need are never in short supply, and we empower them to coach other coaches by providing them with more manuals so that they can become trainers of the curriculum as well.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
The innovations will grow through the traditional channels existing within the Ministry of Education’s curriculum development and dissemination and the Mozambican football club system. This will not necessarily get the balls or the impact to the locations, but will start the notion that you can do more with soccer than run around, score goals and be a team. What will create the impact in growth will be the ability to mobilize the right trainers and trainees turned trainers in the different locations within the selected province. The ability to grow in terms of support for its sustainability rests on the CSR side, the initial interest is strong, so support can keep the balls and funding for training constant. The greatest challenges for growth are: motivated independent coaches, locations with soluble humanitarian problems, and spaces where sports and recreation can be practiced.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Improving the way coaches and players interact and develop attitudes regarding soccer and life skills increasing their awareness about health and community.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
Directly, the beneficiaries of the training are coaches between 20 and 40 years of age. The training and manual must reach the comprehension and implementation level for each coach, otherwise, there is no way that the youth, aged 8 to 16, will receive the information and activities. We are submitting this program on the tail end of the competition, because, between the 3rd and 7th of December, the head trainers conducted the first non-practice, non-test training at the pilot location: Gurue - in the hills of the upper Zamebi valley in the Province of Zambezia in Mozambique. Twenty-six coaches where trained and in the week following the training, more than 300 children were already taking part in the limited test activities that the coaches where using to practice their proficiency in their new skills.
How many people have you served directly?
From what we have witnessed from the direct implementation, all of the coaches that were trained in Gurue participated in the events after the training. Of the ten sites established as locations for the practices and game, we visited four of them; we counted and talked with a total of 335 children who were participating. The real figures of how many children will be participating at each of the ten sites will be determined in January. But, extrapolating on the preliminary finding and coach workplans each site will have an average of 2 or 3 coaches training two different groups of under-13 and under-15 and open practices for the under-10s. Each group has 50 players, meaning 150 per site, meaning 1,500 children involved. We hope that they figures in January are twice that amount, based on the demand of the children to play during the school holidays.
How many people have you served indirectly?
The figures could end up being a staggeringly high. The city where the pilot is being implemented has a population of more than 100,000. We hope to be able to hear the Passa Bola tournaments and practices had high turnout and that the families of the children and coaches get involved and have a say. Some of the fields in Gurue are going to need some leveling and rehabilitation, the coaches have plans to approach the player’s parents to help with the work. The manual can be inserted into an existing group of players or coaches to enhance their trainings and competition. A certain number of people will be affected in this way, it will be difficult to determine how many. The Passa Bola campaign could affect upwards of 1 million people nationally through its trade-in program, where individuals save the Passa Bola logo of their consumables and can trade them in for soccer balls when they have collected enough of them.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
Is the first sexual experience being retarded or are condoms used more frequently? One of the baseline test to see if children are aware of HIV and Malaria and if they use condoms or sleep with mosquito nets (the former to children over 15), creates an indicator to see if children participating are retaining information and changing their attitudes. In the Passa Bola campaign, the amount of money channeled back into sports development is a good indicator of the market's interest and absorption.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
There exist two main barriers to DDV. 1. The ability of coaches to absorb and implement the new ideas. Initially, coaches will start to enhance their soccer training techniques, but some will not be able to take it to the next level: to grasp the idea of what it takes to become a complete athlete. 2. The idea and implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is new in Mozambique, and it is not common for companies to engage in CSR without a heavy marketing aspect.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
The initial funding for the program’s creation and pilot phase is financed by a generous grant from OXFAM NOVIB. The future financing of the extension of the program to the rest of the District and Province will be achieved through the Passa Bola campaign’s and the successes of partnerships with local businesses. Local business partnerships also add in-kind value to the program and the players and coaches take advantage of the businesses willingness to get involved.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
The Lurdes Mutola Foundation has three directors and seven full-time staff. The annual budget for 2005, 2006, and 2007 was $115,000, $200,000 and $650,000 respectively.
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The demand is limited to the number of children who might have a deficiency of after-school activities or sports. With over 5 million children aged 5 to 17, the demand is relatively limitless. In terms of Passa Bola, the demand exists so far as the private sector feels its CSR funds are put to good use. Many companies feign CSR through sporting events and activities, Passa Bola keeps them accountable and the coordination and implementation remains out-sourced to the Foundation.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
The economic situation of Mozambique is stable. The program initially relies on donor funding, but will then strive with the willingness of the private sector through Passa Bola. The timing could not be better in Mozambique, as the private sector is aching to find solutions for how to do CSR in their impact zone, or for the larger brands how to out-source the brand involvement without compromising the impact of their own staff.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
The story is based on the crossing of paths of two individuals in Mozambique: Bert Sonnenschein and Gabriel Fossati-Bellani. The former a Soccer fanatic and Creative Director for a Film Production company in Maputo, and the latter and Sport for Social Change enthusiast and Program Manager whose meeting in 2003 led to many ideas for Soccer from Development Programs until one finally stuck. It had the strongest base and the highest success quotient. Bert, a Dutch film-maker who arrived in Mozambique in 1989, had been using soccer and video in the neighborhoods around Maputo (Mozambique’s Capital) with ex-soccer players turned coaches to support individuals and communities with no ability to finance a tournament, let alone buy balls. The films work in a two-fold, to showcase important issues and make some money to support the teams. Gabriel, an Italian-born Economist arrived in Mozambique in 2003, was working on creating community led initiatives using games fraught with messages to impact attitudes and knowledge of pertinent health issues. The partnership and exchange of ideas was a natural fit to their lives, the two met over a game of soccer in late 2003.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
Gabriel graduated (2003) Princeton University with a degree in Economics and left for Mozambique as a Princeton-In-Africa Fellow. He spent two years working as a Coordinator for Right to Play. Later he worked for the Mozambican UNRCO on the Strategy Paper for the UN International Year of Sports. At Princeton he co-founded the Black Student Union, currently the largest student organization. Born in Milano, Gabriel immigrated to California as a child. He is the proud father of a one year old son.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
Thru my subscription to Changemakers.net, the Foundation's participation in the Windhoek NextStep 2007 Conference and the Southern Africa launch for the Nike Sport for Social Change Development Network also Windhoek in September 2007.
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
Nike Sport for Social Change Network (Southern Africa)
 | Samit Shah said: Dear Gabriele: Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and we ... about this idea. - 430 days ago |
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