Shifting boundaries for Afghani Women and Youth
Location
Right To Play uses sport & play programs to improve health, build life skills, & foster peace for children and communities affected by war,poverty &disease.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sport
Other
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2002
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?
Stereotyping that excludes
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:
Cultural barriers in traditional Muslim society have prohibited women & girls from being able to participate in sport & play activities. This exclusion in turn makes women spectators instead of participants. This in turn applies to roles of women in power relations within Afghan and Pakistani conservative communities.
Name Your Project
Shifting boundaries for Afghani Women and Youth
Describe Your Idea
Right To Play uses sport & play programs to improve health, build life skills, & foster peace for children and communities affected by war,poverty &disease.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Right To Play uses sport & play programs to improve health, build life skills, & foster peace for children and communities affected by war,poverty &disease.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
Right To Play's values include the "best practices of sport and play"
Cooperation (we put teamwork and fair play first)
Hope (we help make dreams possible)
Integrity (our actions reflect our values, vision and mission)
Leadership (we teach leadership by demonstrating it in our communities)
Dedication (we are dedicated to working with our communities)
Respect (we respect each other)
Enthusiasm (we have fun)
Nurture (we encourage each other with positive feedback
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
The lack of formalized structured sport & play denies a vehicle in providing children & youth with life-skills training. Using the Red ball Child Play curriculum, children learn about how to take care of themselves and one another. Children learn best when having fun and RTP addresses the lack of physical activity to bring this empowering message to youth & children.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
The Right To Play Delivery Model is the means through which sport and play activities are designed and implemented at project locations. Local Project Coordinators are assigned to a project location to implement sport and play activities through 1 of 3 approaches: local staff; schools; and, partner organizations. The Country Manager (CM) is instrumental in the implementation of the Delivery Model taking the lead responsibility to ensure effective implementation. Right To Play partners with local NGO Insan to reach local communities. Additional RTP members include LPCs, Supervisors and/ or Project Assistants, Coach Trainers and Coaches.
2 Local Project Coordinators train 6 Supervisors; in turn train 26 Coach Trainers; who reach 340 Coaches/volunteers (Teachers), and finally 14,821 Children.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
Right To Play established a country office in 2007, hired a Country Manager and has opened discussions with the Pakistani Ministry of Education about integration of RTP curriculum into mainstream schools. Norwegian government has expressed interest in supporting this initiative in the FATA region of Pakistan. Futher, as Afghani women return to Afghanistan, RTP will explore when possible, start-up in Afghanistan.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Promote peaceful communities and healthy behavior through sports for children and youth in selected communities, with primary focus on girls.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
Following the introduction of Right To Play Programming in Afghan refugee schools, a number of positive impacts have been observed. These impacts include an increase in attendance, a decrease in tardiness and truancy, an improvement in students taking an active interest in their studies, and an amelioration of relations between students and teachers. In addition, boys who once relied on drugs for entertainment have been encouraged to participate in sporting activities both in Quetta and Peshawar. As a result of their participation and the efforts of their coaches, recreational drug use has significantly decreased and many boys have quit completely.
Following the principle of inclusion, females and children with a disability have been encouraged to participate since project inception. As a result, 80% of the total beneficiaries are female. Females are leading on both project sites; they are in larger numbers as Coaches and there are more girls’ schools participating than boys’ schools. In addition, women’s badminton and cricket teams have been formed in both areas.
How many people have you served directly?
Right To Play’s program for Afghan Refugees has been implemented successfully in selected Afghan refugee communities in Pakistan since 2002. Throughout this time, Right To Play and local implementing partners at Insan Foundation Pakistan have trained almost 1,000 teachers, coaches and volunteers who in turn have reached approximately 20,000 children and youth.
How many people have you served indirectly?
An estimated 50,000 family members, community leaders, teachers, and other community members.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
Interest by Pakistani government; returnee Afghani women in starting RTP programs in Afghanistan; school principals requesting RTP projects in their schools as vehicle to increase attendance.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
Lack of volunteer culture jeopardizes sustainable participation in Right To Play project; Internal conflict within community groups (e.g., refugee and non-refugee; tribal divisions within refugee camps/ gender divisions/ power structures/ individuals with disabilities) could create exclusive projects; Sport can lead to a highly competitive environment, which may cause conflict; Activities are not completed as scheduled due to external factors beyond the control of RTP such as political unrest; Large scale voluntary repatriation/ resettlement of Right To Play trained coaches back to
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
RTP in Pakistanis currently funded by RNMFA and a private donor in Switzerland. Requests for proposals have been received from Norwegian Embassy and interest from USAID.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
Worldwide Right To Play income for projects in 23 countries is $27 million. In Pakistan, currently our budget is $500,000+ USD, and expected to reach $1 million in 2008.
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
In Asia requests for RTP activities have been received from within Pakistan, as well as Philippines, India, Cambodia, Timor, Bangladesh.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
Mainstreaming RTP activities into school curriculum requires time & resources. For example, in Thailand and Sri Lanka interest has been expressed by local officials but require country-specific research to validate the the RTP approach. RTP is investing in researching the impact in these countries.
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
The Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee (LOOC) conceived Olympic Aid (now Right To Play) in 1992 in preparation for the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. The focus of Olympic Aid during these Games was to show support for people in war-torn countries and areas of distress. Olympic athletes were chosen to be ambassadors of Olympic Aid prior to and during the Games to assist in the fundraising efforts. The lead Athlete Ambassador was four-time Gold Medalist Johann Olav Koss, who donated a large portion of his winnings to Olympic Aid, and challenged fellow athletes and the public to donate money for each gold medal won. An unprecedented $18 million US was raised and used for five main projects: building a hospital in Sarajevo; building schools in Eritrea; supporting a mother/child program in Guatemala; supporting refugees in Afghanistan; and a disabled children support program in Lebanon. Johann Koss later established Right To Play and has led it into the reach & impact RTP now has.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
I have been involved in humanitarian assistance and development work in Asia since 1970. From Oxfam, PLAN, and US Peace Corps [Volunteer in Philippines and Country Director in Bangladesh] I have committed myself to social change for those dispossessed in society.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
While I have known of Ashoka for decades... I was Asia Regional Director for Oxfam America from 1990-1998 and shared many contacts and ideas with Ashoka. But this exciting contest came to me via e-mail. I do believe in Ashoka's work and also in the power of sport to influence children's lives.
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
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Comments
Michael,
I just want to say that I am really happy to see RTP enter the competition and am really curious to learn more about your work in Pakistan/ Afghanistan. It seems to me that there are probably real insights that could be gleaned about both youth with disabilities and gender inclusion from this settings - do you have any strategies that you could share that might help other groups that are struggling to successfully include these target audiences in settings where there is not necessarily a supportive environment to do so. I am also curious to know more about how you guys try to "go local" as you cited external factors as an obstacle - We all agree that sport is particularly useful in post-conflict settings and I am curious to know more how you operate successfully in spite of the tensions that exist in this type of landscape.
Thanks and best of luck,
Ziba
Hi, Ziba, thanks for your comments. Please contact IqbalJatoi our Country Manager in Islamabad. His email is ijatoi@righttoplay.com