Sport to improve lives of people with disabilities
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition competition.
APAID's implementation of sport projects and research in developing countries aims to contribute to an improvement in quality of life of persons with disabilities.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Field of Work
health/sports
If Field of Work is “other” please define in 1-2 words below
Year project started (or projected start date) (yyyy)
2008
YouTube Upload
APAID video - English version
Video APAID - version française
Project URL (or link to any media coverage)
What is the primary problem your venture is trying to address and how are you addressing it (or planning to address it)?
The mission of Adapted Physical Activity International Development (APAID) is to improve the quality of life of people with physical and intellectual disabilities in developing countries. Serious problems exist in these countries where many children with disabilities are treated as outcast, kept hidden or even thrown out of thier homes and deserted.
In order to improve their quality of life, APAID uses adapted physical activity (APA). With this tool, we can empower people with disabilities, raise awareness about their abilities rather than disabilities and promote their rights as stated in the United Nations convention on the rights of people with disabilities (2006). To this end, APAID follows different steps:
- Partnering with local organizations that are willing to implement projects for people with
disabilities but lack the knowledge to do so.
- Capacity building and spreading of existing knowledge in the field of APA by organizing courses
about disability related topics in general and APA in specific for local partner organizations.
- Implementing projects for people with disabilities by assisting and advising local partner
organizations in the development of project proposals relating adapted physical activity, planning
and project management.
- Raising awareness about the situation of people with disabilities by including community
information meetings in the projects and by informing people in Western countries during inclusive
events, fundraising activities, presentations, workshops and letters.
- Conducting research, monitoring and evaluation of projects in order to improve running and future
projects and to develop APA tools for local partner organizations.
Name Your Project
Sport to improve lives of people with disabilities
Describe Your Idea
APAID's implementation of sport projects and research in developing countries aims to contribute to an improvement in quality of life of persons with disabilities.
Innovation
Project Description
APAID's implementation of sport projects and research in developing countries aims to contribute to an improvement in quality of life of persons with disabilities.
Unique and different
Many (international) development organization are founded to help developing countries improving the quality of life for their citizens. However, people with disabilities often miss out on the benefits of development efforts because organizations and donors do not know how to include them (Vanleit, 2008). APAID is unique because the organization aims to assist able bodied sport and development organizations in the inclusion of people with disabilities so that this world's largest and most neglected minority can also benefit.
APAID's originality comes also from the combination of sports projects with social goals (e.g. inclusion, sensitization) and research projects (e.g. physical activity level and quality of life of persons with disabilities living in the slum areas). Most organizations using sport as a tool do not include scientific research within their activities. APAID aims to develop a body of knowledge in this field of intervention in order to keep on improving their projects.
Project plan
APAID plans to continue and expand its project with MYSA (Kenya), which contains weekly recreation days and sport outreach programs which reach more than 200 children with disabilities every month. In addition, APAID will start a new project with The Kids League (Uganda) to start sport competitions for children with disabilities by January 2009. APAID also aims plans to network with other local organization for the development of new projects.
APAID intends to publish its articles on physical activity level and quality of life of persons with disabilities living in Kenya. Early 2009, APAID will collect data about the project in Kenya and about disability in (conflict affected regions in) Uganda.
Lastly, to ensure financial sustainability, APAID will continue to raise funds following the below described strategies.
Partnerships
The first succesful partnership is with MYSA (Kenya). This organization is one of the world's most famous sport and development organisation that has been awarded and nominated for a large number of prizes (including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Price). After an introductory visit and several meetings, APAID and MYSA formed a partnership. Together, we will improve the inclusion of children with disabilities in their sport projects.
Our second partnership is with The Kids League (Uganda). This well known sport and development organization works in several regions in Uganda. APAID had meetings with the director during a seminar where he showed his interest in our work. After a introduction visit to his organization we signed a partnership agreement aiming to start a project for children with disabilities.
In research terms, APAID works together with the University of Paris 10 (France) and Jomo Kenyatta University (Kenya) in order to conduct research. Furthermore, APAID is in the process of discussing possible collaboration with Stanford University (USA) and the University of Leuven (Belgium).
Impact
Impact
APAID's projects change attitudes of community members, empower and improve the quality of life in persons with disabilities.
Effectiveness
In the slums of Nairobi, monthly 30 volunteers, over 200 children with disabilities and more than 300 community members participate in activities (e.g. sport, raising awareness).
More than 2000 Europeans have been informed about APAID during events.
How do you engage and impact the community?
In Kenya, community members (including persons with disabilities) were selected to follow an education in APA to be able to work as project volunteers. Currently, they are leading the weekly recreation days in which children from the communities take part. These volunteers also organize sport activities within their community (out-reach program). Since these outreach programs take place on open community fields, it brings together a big group of curious community members. They get the opportunity to see the abilities and potential of the active children with disabilities. In addition, awareness on disability issues (including right for peeople with disabilities and inclusion) is raised when the educated volunteers share their knowledge with the children and the community members during these gatherings.
In France and The Netherlands, we organize fundraising event and workshops in which we raise awareness on the situation of people with disabilities in developing countries.
How do you measure this impact?
APAID puts a high premium on the monitoring and evaluation of its projects. Therefore, APAID conduct scientific research to observe the impacts of the intervention. Through observation, interviews and longitudinal field data collection about physical activity level and quality of life of the participants and community members' attitudes toward people with disabilities, APAID measures its impacts quantitavely and qualitatively.
Obstacles
One of the foreseeable obstacles for maximizing our impact is the attitude of some government officials in developing countries. They do not always recognize the importance of projects for people with disabilities. By inviting them to the activities and explaining our point during meetings, we try to give them this insight (we find it important to stay with our values and therefore not using bribing as a strategy).
Another obstacle is the difficulty in finding financial support for these projects. We therefore implement projects that can be self-sustainable after a few years.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
Financing source
(or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)
APAID is financed by donor organization, corporates and regular donors. In addition APAID organizes fundraising events, and offers workshops to schools, organizations and companies.
Our projects are implemented in such a way that they can be self-sustainable after a few years (e.g. by hiring out a renovated sport hall).
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and sustain your project?
APAID plans to sustain and grow by partnering with reliable local partner organization who have proven to be sustainable within their culture. In collaboration with universities, we conduct research in the regions where we work to ensure suitable and (cost-)effective projects.
Furthermore, we are currently meeting with several well-known international organization to learn from their exeperiences.
Lastly, we plan to work together with a professional film maker to prepare a small documentaire that will function as promotion movie of the organization.
Finance details
Money raised:
Project in Kenya: 36 565 Euro (Donor organisation, charity actions)
Project in Uganda (for 2009): 1 200 Euro (Private donors, sale of gadgets)
APAID operating costs: 1 990 Euro (Private donors, charity events)
Number of people in the team: 3
Director of project department, Director of research department and East Africa Manager
Number of partners: 4
MYSA (Kenya), The Kids League (Uganda)
University of Paris 10 (France), Jomo Kenyatta University (Kenya)
Creative funding
APAID fills in proposals for funding, but also uses creative strategies to acquire finding. Firstly, APAID takes initiatives in organizing fundraising events such as charity sports tournament for people with and without disabilities. During these events we not only want to raise fund, but also raise awareness about the situation of people with disabilities in developing countries.
Another way in which we acquire fund is by leading workshops in schools about sports for people with disabilities or their situation in developing countries. In exchange for our information, the schools organize fundraising events, such as sponsor runs, parties and auctions.
Other non finance needs
Non-financial resources that APAID needs to sustain its projects are reliable partners, volunteers, media attention, local wheelchair producers and of course a lot of dedication and enthusiasm.
The Story
Motivation
Since early childhood, we (Steffi de Jong and Pierre Bataille: APAID founders) have been passionate about sporting activities. Life brought us many experiences with persons with disabilities that showed us the positive effects of sports on their mental and physical well being. We both decided to dedicate our future to this area. Because of that, we met each other during the international Erasmus Mundus Master on Adapted Physical Activity. Having experienced disability in Europe, we discovered another "world" while studying in South Africa. Seeing persons with disabilities in the townships who were left without assistance and locked up in their houses, made us realizing that our knowledge could contribute to a better life for these people who live in places where they do not have the right of dignity. While staying near Cape Town, we met a responsible from MYSA Kenya which is a sport and development organization focusing on children from the slums of Nairobi. This well known organization wanted to start a project for persons with disabilities, but needed help to realize that. That was the opportunity we took and with a high motivation we started this challenge. That is where APAID started...
Awards
As a young organization, APAID has not yet have the opportunity to win any awards. However, the organization is starting to receive invitations to compete for awards, even after the short time of existence.
The most honourable recognition of APAID comes from the International Federation in Adapted Physical Activity who supports APAID since its creation. APAID has also appeared in several positive articles in news-papers and relevant magazines in The Netherlands (including De Telegraaf, Nederlands Dagblad, Brabants Dagblad, Tilburgse Koerier, Onze Wereld), France (including La Voix Du Nord, Le Journal de la Haute-Marne, Le Phare Dunkerquois) and Kenya (including Metro).
Broader context
APAID is in different ways related to the youth and social change movement. First of all, APAID has been initiated by Steffi de Jong and Pierre Bataille who are two 23 years old youth working towards social change. The social change APAID aims for is the improvement in the quality of lives of people with disabilities in developing countries. Both the beneficiaries and volunteers of our projects are mainly youths. Youth that organize, youth that raise awareness and youth that brings socail change.
Lastly, our raising awareness campaigns in Europe also mainly focus on the youth in schools. We make them awere of the situation in developing countries and support them in organizaing fundraising activities to contribute themselves to a social change.
Ongoing
At this moment both of us (Pierre Bataille and Steffi de Jong) feel that we will keep on contributing to the situation of persons with disabilities and fight for their rights. We are passionated about sustaining and developing our organization. In the future, we hope to reach the point where we have trained personnel who can initiate APAID's project so that we can stay at the background to monitore, evaluate and supervise.
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| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Logo | 110.87 KB |
| Empowerment through sports | 182.13 KB |
| Education of volunteers | 195.01 KB |
| A girl with intellectual disability enjoying activities | 216.72 KB |
| Activities in the middle of the slums | 244.75 KB |
| Steffi de Jong teaching activities | 195.07 KB |
| Activities in the middle of the slums | 280.76 KB |
| Day 2 (15).JPG | 263.86 KB |
| Photo de groupe avec Pierre Bataille | 184.62 KB |
| Outreach (43).JPG | 174.59 KB |
| Basketball | 240.05 KB |
| Smile | 158.03 KB |
| Strategic plan.pdf | 1.23 MB |
| Newsletter 1 2008.pdf | 383.55 KB |
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Comments
Hi Pierre and Steffi,
You have a really noble idea and I loved reading through your entry. I think it would be great if you could elaborate a bit more on specific strategies you are using to help other organizations involve youth with disabilities into their programing.
Good luck!
Romina Laouri
Ashoka's Youth Venture
Hi Romina,
Thank you for reacting on our entry.
The strategies we use to help other organizations are fully dependent on their characteristics, working method and structure. We find it of critical importance that we help them setting up a project for persons with disabilities that fits within their organization. Firstly, because by doing so the projects are more likely to sustain well. Secondly, these organizations understand the cultural context in which they work better than we do since they have been successfully working in the environment for several years. Therefore, they are the ones knowing what works best and what does not. Our role is more to assist them with knowledge and strategies to include persons with disabilities within their organizations (at practical and policy level).
To give you some example: MYSA (Kenya) works with a very efficient network of volunteers. We selected some of them who had interest in working with people with disabilities (some of them having disabilities themselves). We brought them together with some teachers in special education and educated them during a one week course. Theoretical and practical sessions were used to teach them about sport for persons with disabilities and how one can organize and prepare sport activities. We made sure that we assisted the group of volunteers during the first activities after which we gave feed-back on how to improve. In the meantime we assisted MYSA in finding relevant local partners with experience in disability (e.g. Special Olympics Kenya, Handicap International Kenya etc…). When time passed, we made sure that the best volunteers and the experienced teachers/partners replaced us so that the group of volunteers was able to continue the activities on their own.
Hopefully we gave you a bit of an insight in some of the strategies we are using. If you would like to know more, you are more than welcome to ask us any other questions.
Regards,
Pierre and Steffi
Great reply. I think you need to try to incorporate this in your entry!
Comme vous pouvez l'apercevoir sur notre candidature, APAID est une organisation établie en France. En effet, nous (Steffi de Jong et Pierre Bataille; 23 ans) opérons depuis le Nord de la France. Bien que la vidéo présentée ci-dessus soit en français, nous désirons vous faire partager plus d’informations dans la langue de Molière sur le site internet de l’organisme (www.apaid.org). Nous avons rempli cette candidature en anglais afin de pouvoir faire partager nos projets au plus grand nombre de personne possible. Vous pouvez également déposer vos commentaires en anglais ou en français et nous nous ferons un plaisir de vous répondre pertinemment.
Cordialement,
Pierre Bataille et Steffi de Jong
Je vote pour vous :)
Sylvain
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www.bernard.fr
Merci Sylvain de ton soutien. Surtout n'hésite pas à faire la promotion de notre candidature et de convaincre de voter pour APAID auprès de tous tes contacts, cela nous ferait très plaisir.
Merci encore.
Cordialement,
Pierre et Steffi
Hi Pierre and Steffi,
First of all, I am really impressed by your entry! I think it is really good that you try to combine projects with with research, so you will exactly know how hugh the impact is.
There is only one question coming up in my mind when reading your entry. How do you select volunteers and what kind of training do you give them? Do you also test the effect of such education on volunteers, or the effect of the project itself?
Rest me to say; keep on going....the award will come soon!!
Kind regards,
Rinske van Dijk
KU Leuven, Belgium
Dear Mrs. van Dijk,
First of all, thank you for your reaction. Regarding your first question, we think it is necessary to precise that we have two main types of volunteers: Research and project volunteers.
Research volunteers are either local or international university students. They are selected on their motivation, research capacities and area of expertise. They are mainly trained by their universities so APAID do not have any direct impact on their education although the experience they get while evaluating APAID’s project contributes certainly to the expansion of their skills.
For project volunteers, motivation and dedication are the main recruitment criteria because these two aspects are crucial factors for project success and sustainability. We recruit them mainly through community awareness campaign informing that an organization is about to start a new project on the theme of disability and is looking for volunteers. In each of our groups of volunteers we try to include persons with disabilities from the communities for the reason that they are the one experiencing the local socio- cultural context in their day- to- day life. Therefore, they are precious for the projects.
As soon as the volunteers are recruited, they follow APAID’s capacity building program. The concept is the following: Volunteers follow a one-week course on general disability issues and adapted sports specific information. This course include theoretical session in which they learn about disability models, rights for people with disabilities, rules of certain sports, etc. and practical session in which they participate in a certain sport, need to prepare a training, conduct a training, etc.
We evaluate our education by asking written feedbacks on daily basis and an end-evaluation from the participants. For the next courses we also intend to use pre-post data collection on attitudes toward people with disabilities.
Thanks for the comment and we hope that through our dedication and hard work we will indeed make it to the finals!
Pierre and Steffi
Dear Pierre and Steffi,
Thank you for the broad answer! I'm looking forward to the pre-post results of the evaluation of the education for volunteers. I think that will make more sence than just a written feedback. Again my congratulations for you professional way of working!
Kind regards,
Rinske van Dijk
I think this is a great project given its projected impact both in terms of attitude and value addition for the volunteers and the people with disability involved and the general kenyan populace. As a person following the project very keenly on the ground i would like to say that so far the volunteers are very positive and committed to the project and the project is realising some of its objectives like attitude change towards the people with disability through personal involvement in the project and the community awareness events.
However something which worries me most is the possible lax in the volunteers committment and therefore the maintainance of the volunteers committment,and on this i would like to know what strategies you have put in place or you are thinking of using inorder to maintain the volunteers committment in the project as a stop-gap measure.
There is also a need to sensitice some special school administrators who are kind of conservative in terms of refusing to embrace new ideas like accepting to participate in recreation sports days,i wonder whether you are thinking about ways of making them realise the importance of the project to the kids with disabilities in their schools.
Otherwise kudos! for the noble idea and the good work done so far,all the best in the project.
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MOSES
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