South East District Youth Empowerment League, (SEDYEL): Developing a sustainable youth-led sports program for Botswana
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Sport for a Better World competition.
Using sports to channel the energy and enthusiasm of young people away from the risky behaviors.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sport
Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2005
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram:
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:
This field has not been completed
Name Your Project
South East District Youth Empowerment League, (SEDYEL): Developing a sustainable youth-led sports program for Botswana
Describe Your Idea
Using sports to channel the energy and enthusiasm of young people away from the risky behaviors.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Using sports to channel the energy and enthusiasm of young people away from the risky behaviors.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
The unique thing about SEDYEL is that; it's for young people by young people. It gives young people an oppurtunity to take initiative as they are on the driver's seat. SEDYEL works at the grassroots level to build local leadership capacity and community involvement by actively engaging young people in sports through organized weekly league matches and Empowerment tournaments.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
Botswana’s fight against HIV/AIDS is one born of many social factors. For the youth of Botswana, an inadequate lack of sports and extra curricular activities means that many turn to high risk activities including alcoholism, drug use and delinquency to fill their time. In South East District, a region comprising approximately 70, 000 people these issues are ever present.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
The need for youth led programming in sports and other creative pursuits for young Motswana cannot be overemphasized. Such bodies would provide activities that would impede on the worrisome trends mentioned above. As well such structures will present ideal platforms for offering appropriate HIV/AIDS education, leadership and training directly to the youth. This would develop new responsible leaders among the youth, once who would then educate their peers.SEDYEL offers the opportunity to engage youth in an integrated approach to build skills that they need to protect themselves from HIV infections, through Peer to Peer education model. Through Community and School Outreach Programs, SEDYEL has been able to reach in and out of school youth, building their lifeskills and leadership skills as part of an intergrated sport development program. Physical activity interwoven with the Kicking AIDS Out concept, is an ideal delivery mechanism to tackle youth development issues and HIV/AIDS.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
SEDYEL's overall goal is to create a youth led sports program implemented by and benefiting the youth. Regular organised competitions for boys and girls below the age of 16 years of age was almost non-existent in Botswana. Over the last two years, a registration campaign was launched in the district and the results have been astounding, with 94 teams being formed. The league also acts as a mobilizing tool for the identification of key local volunteers and a delivery mechanism for Health Education. The program aims at expanding its facilities as a sports and community development program. Based on the experiences, it is evident that to maintain any level of sustainability for the long term, empowering the youth leaders is essential and at the same time developing their skills. Skills development capacity building program has been initiated with the Mathare Youth Sports Association of Kenya, aimed at transfering skills and knowledge to the youth in SEDYEL through South to South exchange.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
SEDYEL intends to develop a sustainable youth-led sports program for South East District in Botswana through the creation of a district wide league
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
SEDYEL is a youth-initiative which aims to use sports as a tool for youth development. Its overall goal is to create a sustainable youth led sports program. To date SEDYEL has an on-going League that is involving 94 teams (24 of them being female teams) and approximately 2000 youth in the whole South East District. We are extremely proud of our accomplishments to date and consider this only the beginning of a growing youth-run sports organization that will truly be Botswana’s first. Through the use of sport, SEDYEL has created a fun and healthy environment for in and out of school youths, where they can openly share their skills, information and knowledge in developing one another. Through the Kicking AIDS Out network, SEDYEL has offered appropriate HIV/AIDS education, lifeskills and leadership training directly to the youth and thus has impacted positively to the lives of the youth as many have been reformed from the Juveniles and jails and integrated back to the society.
How many people have you served directly?
SEDYEL offers the opportunity to engage youth in an integrated approach to build skills that they need to protect themselves from HIV infection, but also to break barriers surrounding stigma and discrimination. To date, the project boasts of being one of the largest youth run football league in Botswana, with a registration of 94 teams (24 being female teams) involving approximately over 2000 youth in 5 villages in South East District with 20 of the youth having been trained as Kicking AIDS Out Peer Educators, the first in Botswana and another 30 as Adolescent Sexual Health Educators
How many people have you served indirectly?
SEDYEL has been in full operation since November 2005 and through the Community and School Outreach programs, we have been able to reach approximately 10,000 people indirectly within our District over a period of 2 years and we are in the process of evaluating the impact that has been created so far. This includes Hospice/ Home Based Care homes; Schools and Our communities through Village Outreach Programs and our youth through the Football league clinics.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
In the past years, South East District was regarded as one the most dangerous parts of Botswana, with about 7 gangster groups mainly formed by young boys in the communities. Since the creation of the SEDYEL, these gangster groups have been turned into football teams which are now actively participating in the league healthily playing against and with each other, which in the past never happened. These individuals are now motivated, empowered and can now use their skills in community development
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
While this is clearly a “youth for youth” initiative and must remain so to be successful, the ongoing support of adult mentors and senior staff from SEDC, as well as support from national government, the community and private sector, is crucial for the project’s success. For example, continued access to office and meeting space is essential and transport for the teams from different villages to play each other in tournaments and from time to time for league organizers to reach the different villages, is also key. SEDC continues to provide some transportation on weekends but these needs to be planned for and requested in advance. Acquisition of the plot of land and the portable office space will enable dedicated access to some office and meeting space for SEDYEL. The porter camp will of course only be an interim solution as it is very small for the number of youth engaged in the project. SEDC and the youth leaders will draw up site development plans which will include office and meeting space, so that external funding can be sought. In addition, a SEDYEL mini-bus to transport the youth will be a priority for fundraising or private sector donations.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Our partners (City of Toronto, Commonwealth Games Canada and UK Sport), have pledged to financially support the program for the next 5 years leading to 2011. For sustainability purposes, SEDYEL is looking at possibilities of coming up with diverse funding sources and opportunities locally and internationally and to come up with social enterprise activities in order to help self finance some of the program activities and contribute towards the overall financial sustainability and diversification.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
The SEDYEL is run by dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly and endlessly to see that the programs are run successfully with mentorship by South East District Council staff, Commonwealth Games Canada personnel and Mathare Youth Sports Association Youth Development Officers on an annual budget of approximately P350, 000 kindly provided by it's partners and directly used on it's activities. The youth Volunteers are reimbursed for any costs incurred while undertaking SEDYEL activities and so far there are no any revenue that have been generated.
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The HIV/AIDS scourge siphon off the productive human factor therefore leaving the unproductive population behind consequently impacting adversely in the socio-economic welfare of the country. The unemployment rate which is high especially among the youth, has contributed to the high infection of HIV/AIDS. The family ties and support structures have disintegrated. These has made young girls to turn to survival sex. Faced with this situation, SEDYEL deviced an incentive structure for its volunteer
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
The needs and demands keep on shifting as poverty, HIV and AIDS is overpowering the present. Coming up with Fundraising activities locally could not be overemphasized, but has turned out to be tough as the communities of our geographical coverage live below the poverty line. These has led to donor dependency which can only be provided over a given period of time and often depends on the donor interests and focus. In case of a shift then the program will be left vulnerable.
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
With a population of 1.7 million, Botswana had the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the world in 2006. 38% of adults tested positive, 27% of people aged 15-19 tested positive, and for women aged 15-29 the rate was as high as 50%. The scourge has resultantly left a lot of the productive rural population sick and considerable number of children either infected and/or orphaned. This inevitably depicts the need for a supportive intervention from government, churches, Donor Agencies and even youth led initiatives.
"A long mile journey begins with a step"
In 2001, the South East District Council formed an HIV/AIDS capacity building partnership with the City of Toronto (Canada) supported by the Federation of the Canadian Municipalities (FCM). This partnership involved collaboration on a variety of fronts one being Youth engagement and delivery of HIV/AIDS education/information through sports. Commonwealth Games Association of Canada (CGC) became involved in the partnership by assisting to develop the Ramotswa Youth Sports Association (RYSA) within that particular village beginning 2003. South East District Youth Empowerment League (SEDYEL) was born out of this great initiative in 2005, with UK Sports and Mathare Youth Sports Association coming on board in 2005. T
“SEDYEL was formed to channel the energy and enthusiasm of young people away from the risky behaviors which are the main factors in Botswana’s high incidence of HIV/AIDS.”
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
I am 23 year old young man, born and raised in the village of Ramotswa in the Land of the Diamonds and open spaces;Botswana. I am the third in a family of four. An idealist with a lot of dreams and aspirations. As a young HIV/AIDS activist, my passion is my Community and I have always held an avid interest in international development. I work as a Life Skill Educator/Youth Empowerment Worker with the South East District Youth Empowerment League in Botswana where I started as a volunteer in 2005.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
I heard about this contest at the Next Step Conference in Windhoek, Namibia in September 2007. The Next Step Conference is an International conference that was held in Namibia in September 2007. It brought together a wide range of leading players from the international sport and community development programs that actively contribute to the work of the Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group (SDP IWG).
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
The SEDYEL is an initiative of the South East District Council in Partnership with the City of Toronto, Canada; UK Sport; and the Mathare Youth Sports Association of Kenya. To date, other partners have come on board that includes the Kicking AIDS Out Network members; University of Botswana and the Supreme Sports Council of Africa.
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Comments
Hello Kitso,
Exciting entry! I would love for you to expand your entry and talk more about the problems that youth face in Botswana and talk more about how your program is addressing those problems. More specifically, what are youth learning from SEDYEL? Can you include some personal stories of youth that have transitioned out of gang life through your program? I imagine that some of those stories are quite powerful. Can you also explain the way in which youth are directing and leading the program? Are the volunteers all youth?
Thank you for your response. Keep up the great work.
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
Dana,
Thank you for your insightful comment, I appreciate it.
Well,though my Community is faced with a lot of Challenges such as HIV/AIDS, Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Teenage Pregnancy and in most cases the youth are the hardest hit, this is due to the fact that the only recreation young people have here is in the bars where honestly they are exposed to worrisome trends mentioned above. And in most cases the family ties and support structures disintergrate leaving the children with no one to offer mentorship, leadership and life skills education. SEDYEL has therefore offered a conducive environment to a lot of young people and offered them appropriate education. Personally I was involved with the gangs, but a very good example would be Tebogo Phetlhe, a 23 year old youngman who was also in the gangs. As a child, Tebogo was abused by his father, and therefore did all to stay away from home and as usual the only place to go to was the bars and being part of the gangs. He was at some point taken to jail after assaulting one community member and a couple of times tried to commit suicide due to the situation at home. Tebogo joined SEDYEL as a player and attended the referees course and today he is the Coordinator of the Referees Committee. His remarks below about the program sums it all
"My life has positively changed ever since I joined this program, I now feel part of my community and I can share my experiences of being a gangster with my peers to show them that I onced was lost but now I am found, I now feel like a complete humanbeing".
Yes all the Volunteers of SEDYEL are all youth, forming the Zonal Organizing Committees, in every village and responsible for overseeing the planning of league activities in their respective Zones. Zonal League Committees, which consists of the registered teams coaches and managers/secretaries and reponsible for mobilization of league teams and report to the Sports Council, which links all the zones together through Chairpersons from the Zonal League Committees and responsible for the overall running of the league in the whole district. Zonal Disciplinary Committees, which consists of all zonal referees and responsible for planning on officiating the league matches and making sure that the law and order in the field of play are obeyed and followed based on SEDYEL rules of the league and FIFA laws of the game. Referees Committee, consists of the Chairpersons of the five zonal disciplinary committees and responsible for the overall planning and implementation of the refereeing activities, identifying training needs for the referees, share matters and issues arising from the 5 zones. Peer Leaders forum, consists of 6 Peer Educators in every zone and responsible for educational activities in their respective zones. Awareness and Sensitization Committeee then constitutes of the Chairperson of the Peer Leaders Forum and is responsible for identifying training needs for Peer Educators and strengthening of the Educational component of the whole program.
The Sport Council, Awareness and Sensitization Committee and the Referees Committee are the Supreme Committees and the Chairpersons of these Committees then form the Executive Committee, which is responsible in overlooking the project's activities and identifying ways to sustain them as well as evaluating, documenting and reporting.
This structure was found very ideal as it allowes youth on the ground/grassroots level to solve matters and issues affecting them in their communities and then sharing them with other young people in other villages. So all activities that are carried out in SEDYEL are youth-driven from planning to implementation, monitoring and evaluation and documentation.
All the best,
Hi Kitso,
Great to read more about SEDYEL, I think I’m gradually becoming more and more intrigued and fond of this particular program, it looks set for a promising future!
By the sounds of it, it looks like a lot of hard work has been put into this program, and I too would like to read some stories about the gangs.
Here in the UK, more and more youngsters are forming gangs and killing innocent civilians, and I’m wondering if one day, SEDYEL can work with organisations here in the UK, for future strategies to exchange ideas, support and most importantly, to share stories, that can be used as a powerful tool, to help tackle the growing problem within our youth here in the UK.
I guess that just one of my spontaneous ideas again, but I’m more than confidant that the struggles people had to face or over come in Botswana, that’s gang related, would really be an inspiration in helping reduce gang violence here in the UK.
Take care
L and H.
Zaynab
Zaynab,
nice to hear from you and thanks a million times for your comment. I am very glad you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that the program is headed to a very gracious place, I cant agree less; it is truly set for a promising future. of course a lot of hardwork has been put into this program. a lot of us if not all of us merely got involved with these groups out of peer pressure and sometimes because we wanted a to feel superior and belong to a group. It is heartbreaking to hear of the situation in the UK and I do think the problems the youth faced in Botswana are more or less the same the youth in UK are facing, so your idea of SEDYEL working with UK based organizations is pretty much fantastic, I mean the model we have developed and forged with MYSA and the City of Toronto has given us as Batswana in this part of the world a lot of hope and we do wish it can be replicated to other parts of the world as we are able to work together in solidarity.
The youth mentoring other youth is a great aspect of your program, we would love for you to expand on this point. This probably creates a very impactful dynamic that increases your capability to reach out to a greater number of youths in a more effective way. You say this is an all-youth initiative, please expound.
Also, we would like for you to set the entry up in a way that the context of being a young man in Botwana implicates, what is gang life like and how large is the social impact of this transformation relative to the situation in your community?
We would love to hear testimony from former gang members and how the program has helped them reintegrate into non-gang society.
Thank you for your response!!
Best,
Changemakers Team
I have stayed in close touch with the development of SEDYEL from its inception and I have to say that the accomplishments are nothing short of extraordinary. I have seen the mobilization of so much skill and energy and with it the growth of self esteem. Mobilizing 2000 young people in a small district (South East District) in a country with such a high HIV/AIDS prevalence is a crucial contribution to community At the beginning of the project it was impossible to imagine that the youth would be able to make such clear, passionate and moving presentations to people in positions of power. Now there are young men and women who can with confidence share their learnings, their insights and of course their accomplishments. By mobilizing youth from every village in the district - male and female - and combining sport with peer education, the whole community is witnessing change on an unprecedented level. The young people of South East District are making an enormous contribution and finally it is beginning to be recognized. Initiating a Girls Forum at the beginning of the project has ensured that the young women's voices and skills are integrated within both the Sports and peer education components of the project.
I have been lucky enough to visit with the youth of SEDYEL on a number of occasions. Any time I drop by there are so many people crowded into the office - planning, strategizing, sharing stories, organizing league schedules or school visits and just "hanging out". The energy is palpable and real. Everyone wants to make a contribution and to feel part of things. Growing SEDYEL from the ground up and ensuring transparent and accountable decision making structures that are exclusively youth led, has ensured that this project has buy in from the people it serves. The community is looking at the project with pride and are lending their support in a number of different ways
Barbara,
thank you very much Barbara,as usual you have hit the nail on the head. It has been an absolute, incredible previledge working with you and we too believe SEDYEL will truly grow from strength to strength. It is truly inspiring to see people who have not only read about what SEDYEL is about but actually have seen it on the ground and what it can offer to young people talking about the strength of the program. You have said it just like it is.
Kitso!
Awesome to see you here! I had no idea what great work you were doing! I would be interested to know if you have any thoughts on the social enterprise part of your plan, i.e. how you might generate revenue. Have you thought of using the mini-van that you want to purchase as part of this? I am also really interested to know more about the skills training for other youth and your partnership with MYSA. What types of skills are you looking to develop among the young people on your staff and who/ what types of organizations would you like to provide these skills?
THanks and keep up the awesome work!
Ziba
Ziba,
I am glad you found our entry exciting and full of possibilities.
SEDYEL is a fairly new program and looks set for a promising future as some of the changemakers have noticed. We are still dependent on our donors, but still coming with Social Enterprise activities to generate revenue for sustainable purposes. One of those is the mini-van you talked about, once purchased we will make the public hire the van and pay a certain amount of money to generate revenue for the program. The other exciting enterprise is our recently developed mobile tuck-shop for selling sweets, oranges and fatcakes, this has proved to be very important and effective and in a long term will contribute a lot to the overall financial sustainability and diversification.
MYSA was born out of passion for football almost 20 years ago and has pioneered the linkage between sport and greater community development. So as we wanted to develop a similar concept to MYSA, we found it very useful to enter into a skills development capacity building exchange partnership that aims at exposing youth from the South East District to MYSA in order to support their future planning and sustainability of the project in Botswana. This led to the placement of two youth from MYSA to SEDYEL to mentor and inspire the development of youth leadership capacity of the youth in SEDYEL. Through this South-South exchange, there has been a lot of skills exchange between SEDYEL and MYSA youth leaders.
As SEDYEL continues to grow, it is true the youth will need human resource and capacity building skills to sustain the project and running of the league, therefore we are looking at developing their skills on referring and coaching skills. And also invest on leadership and management skills, life skills component of the program.
Hey Kitso,
Very, very cool. Did you connect with NesSt at the sport for change network meeting? They may have some case studies that would be relevant to you as you plan the business around both the mini van and the tuck-shop.
I actually had a question about the tuck-shop. I have heard that one of the challenges that a lot of the community organizations face is the athletes in their programs lack proper nutrition. Have you ever thought of either developing a snack that is targeting the nutrition needs of athletes, but made from local materials? OR partnering with a company that makes these snacks and acting as a distributor for them?
Very cool about the south-south exchange: you should read this article that was just written in the paper about the overall nature of international development, seems relevant to the model you are forging with MYSA. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/02/opinion/edmills.php
I am curious to know more about the cost of the fees charged for the exchange as this could be a great model if different organizations were to build competencies in different areas (back to the branding workshop!). There is an interesting debate on the Carolina for Kibera page about the relative value of foreign (in this case western) volunteers. When do you think this is a valuable input vs. not?
Looking forward to your thoughts!
Z
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