Hay equipo
This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Hay equipo.
To use football as a vehicle of social inclusion for children and youth at risk in Rosario, Argentina; using as much as possible existing resources and building from a 'collective construction' point of view in where many parties come together to achieve a common objective. The children not only get football trainings, but education, nutrition and health programs.
The project is truly grass-root and solutions are coming from the local community, making it sustanaible in the long term.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Mario
Last Name
Raimondi
Website
Organization
El Desafio Foundation
Country
Netherlands, FL
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
El Desafio Foundation
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+54 (341) 421 7090
Organization Address
Zeballos 848 - Rosario
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
Argentina, S
Your idea
Name Your Project
Hay equipo
Country your work focuses on
Argentina, S
Describe Your Idea
To use football as a vehicle of social inclusion for children and youth at risk in Rosario, Argentina; using as much as possible existing resources and building from a 'collective construction' point of view in where many parties come together to achieve a common objective. The children not only get football trainings, but education, nutrition and health programs.
The project is truly grass-root and solutions are coming from the local community, making it sustanaible in the long term.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
The concept stays the same as usual: to use sports as a tool to tackle an issue(s). The actual innovation is in the HOW.
When everyone is talking about impacting thousands of children with (few)specific programs, we decide to focus and impact children with a battery of programs and an integrated plan for all their needs and issues. We use football as a vehicle for education, social inclusion, health education, etc.
We parnerted with the local public school and make sure the children have a proper education, and besides sports we provide with nutrition programs, medical assistance, elearning and new media, education support, psychologhical help, microcredits for the families, sexual education, drugs addiction prevention, dance & acrobatics, arts, etc. All these programs are based on a criteria of development and emporwement of the community, instead of short team and inmediaty assistance.
Overall the children spend 4 hours every day after school in our programs. We believe the social change is inlaid in each person in Argentina, and the solutions should come from the communities themselves. That's why our programs are all developed and executed by local people who has the real knowledge of the issues.
Also, we inspire the whole society to get involved trough volunteering actions and partnerships with public, private and non-profit sectors. We are very active and dinamic when it comes to the use of social media and online campaigns to raise awareness and share the stories of the children.
Trough sports we teach the values of commitment, tolerance, respect for each other, team work, honesty and a 'working' culture.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
Since our start in 2008 with this program, 40 children have became agents of social change, improving themselves in every area and spreading that to the rest of the family, the school and the community. Besides the 40 children directly impacted, we have reached 350 relatives, the school universe (390 students/teachers) and around 2500 citizen of the city that have participated in events, awareness campaign and actively became ambassadors of our cause (which is everyone's cause). We also got attention from the local and national media what helped us to spread our message, we've won a prize for 'social ambassadors' and we have been declared of public interest by the Parliament of Rosario City.
From the children point of view, today they have an incredible selfesteem that allows them to be fair when judging their own behaviour and mistakes. They do learn from mistakes now, they are not afraid of making them. By embracing the values of sports (respect for each other, teamwork, effort, loyalty and tolerance), they became agents of social change for their families and community. We have children of 12 years old teaching to read and write to their own parents! They developed a strong feeling of belonging, growing their commitment and understanding with the programs in general.
Also, we were able to identify and take action on health issues when needed. The children are motivated and generating the change!
Problem
The children are living in a context of social exclusion due to their situation of poverty, dysfunctional families where violence reigns, unemployment, addictions, abuses and school desertion. And in that context they are the most vulnerable, having serious problems communicate. We aims at promoting the bonds among them and to develop capacities that can help them to succeed in life with a holistic program that tackles all these problems.
Actions
Twice a week the children have football trainings, and biweely they play friendly matches against other teams in where the final score is not the point at all, but making the game itself a life learning experience. Also during the year we have different actitives like camps and trips that we use for teambuilding. Besides this, they have workshops of elearning, education support, art, etc.
During the football trainings each week a different child takes the role of 'coordinator', he is responsibile during that period to assist the trainers and mediate when they are conflicts within team mates. The 'coordinator' needs to resolve different situations and be fair, also he needs to remind everyone the values and code of conduct they all agreed at the beggining of the season. Using different 'role games' and methodologies our trainers use every opportunity to teach a life lesson to the children. At the end of the week the whole group have a debate evaluating their own behaviour and the performance of the coordinator. They select then the 'team mate of the week', base on the principles and values they set, and making him a role model for the rest
Results
Besides what we describe in the impact section, we can add some numbers:
-We avoid school desertion by 100%
-Yearly attendance to other programs went up from 64% to 81% in 2009 since the football program is in place
-We've connected much more with the children families, creating new opportunities for their development
-We have double the number of children than before we had the football program
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
There are more children willing to take part on our programs but we face a capacity issue, we expect in the next 3 years to have four more times the children we have today. We need to create more awareness about our activities and vision and inspire people to get involve and support us with work and financially.
We need to grow our income about 10% in 2010, 20% in 2011 and 30% in 2012 aprox. Our income today comes from:
Foundations - 40%
Local sponsors in Argentina (companies) - 10%
Own events we organize with volunteers in both Argentina and The Netherlands - 35%
Own base of private monthly donors - 15%
We've seen an incredible increase of private donors in the last year and there are opportunities there to keep on growing, aswell as local companies that are steping in too. We have a plan till 2017 in order to grow according what we need, executed by an incredible proffesional and efficient team of professionals in marketing, management and communications.
El Desafio believes in excellence in every level and that's why we have profesional people working with the children every day and in the organization itself. In the long term, we want to share, train people and replicate this model to other public schools in the city, since it's really efficient and has a high impact. Already 8 other schools contacted us in 2010 to partner with them too.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Failing to increase our capacity in the coming years (financially, infrastructure and resources).
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$50 - 100
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
In what country?
Argentina, S
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
El Desafio Foundation
How long has this organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
No
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
We believe that social change is only possible when different parts come together for a common objective, therefore we like to talk of collective construction. The help, support and involvement of different sectors of society are a clear signal of the understanding of the issues and the solutions needed. Now these issues are not anymore about 'others', but belong to all the people of Argentina and society. Therefore we are looking to each person to make their part in order to create a better place for everyone.
The main (but not only) partners to mention are:
Laureus Foundation ARG: this NGO cover the cost of the sport program and part of other activities we run. They help us with development, monitoring and sharing ideas on how to get the best results.
La Segunda: this local company provides support financially with a long term vision, which allos us to plan
Private donors: incredible financial base that we've seen only growing since we started (even in crisis times)
UFS IT: this dutch company gives us financial support, equipment and knowledge
Public school Grandoli:joining forces with the school allowed us to reach the community better and develop together
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1) We need to keep on building our network and articulate our work with the public, private and non-profit organizations. This will generate a bigger impact and will allow the model to be replicated.
2) Spread our message in a bigger scale so we can generate and motivate society to get involve.
3) Keep on growing our financial base to be able to maintain the excellence of our programs for the coming years grow in quantity of beneficiaries.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
The story began in December 2002 (after the big crisis in 2001), when with some hockey players friends we carry out an sports event in order to collect nonperishable food, that we donated to the community kitchen of the school Grandoli in Rosario, where the children assist. We have faced several obstacles to finally in 2005 get our legal status to start working; but since we all have a sport mind we didn't stop till we achieved our goal. The organization have been growing since then and inspired more and more people to join, which is really overwhelming.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
It is difficult to say WHO exactly is the social innovator. The program and the organization itself were a result of many people coming together with the community itself, developing and executing the programs.
Officially I'm the founder of El Desafio Foundation, Im a 34 years old Argentinean living in Holland. Im the director of the organization in volunteer basis (no salary), and for a living I work doing sport marketing at NIKE and also as a field hockey trainer. I've received the Social ambassador Award in 2009, given by NGO Help Argentina and the ministery of foreign affaires. I was also nominated in 2007 to it. My passions are social work, sports and helping others to achieve their potential. I like to write a lot, have a sarcastic sense of humour and I have my own blog on CSR issues.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Email from Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
50 words or fewer
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 | 102 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 103 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 103 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 103 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 103 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 103 weeks agoJorn Wemmenhove said: Being Dutch I have always been amazed by the power a football plays in Argentina. El Desafío Foundation understands this power and knows ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 103 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 103 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 110 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
| 112 weeks agoMario Raimondi updated this Competition Entry. |
