Inclusive sports to break down social barriers
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Gamechangers: Change the Game for Women in Sport.
APAID strenghtens local sport and development organizations by teaching them strategies on how to use inclusive sports to break down social barriers
Sobre Você
Informação de Contato
Title
MSc
First name
Pierre Bataille
Last name
and Steffi de Jong
Your job title
Founders APAID
Name of your organization
Adapted Physical Activity International Development
Organization type
Non-Profit
Annual budget/currency
This field has not been completed
Localização
Project Street Address
Rue Waeteraere
Project City
Dunkerque
Project Province/State
Nord
Project Postal/Zip Code
59140
Project Country
França
Sua ideia
Choose your sport: (check all that apply)
Outros
If you chose "other" for Sport, please define in 1-2 words below
Adapted sports
What approach does your initiative incorporate?
Advocacy
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2008
Paste your video code here:
If your project has a website, paste the web address here:
Plot your innovation within the discovery framework:
Barrier
Social stigmas and prohibitions
Insight
Visibility multiplies participation
This field has not been completed. (333 words or less)
Dê um nome ao seu projeto
Inclusive sports to break down social barriers
Describe Your Idea
APAID strenghtens local sport and development organizations by teaching them strategies on how to use inclusive sports to break down social barriers
INOVAÇÃO
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
APAID strenghtens local sport and development organizations by teaching them strategies on how to use inclusive sports to break down social barriers
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit?
In Kenya, monthly 30 volunteers (of which 16 are women, some with disabilities), over 100 girls and over 100 boys with disabilities and more than 300 community members participate in activities (e.g. sport, raising awareness).
In the next 5 years we aim to implement yearly 2 new projects each reaching a minimum of 100 children with disabilities per month.
In Europe over 3.000 people have been informed about the situation of people with disabilities in developing countries during fundraising
Do you have any existing partnerships? If so, please list and describe.
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). Together, we improve the inclusion of girls and boys 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. We signed a partnership agreement aiming to start a project for girls and boys with disabilities.
In research terms, APAID works together with Stanford University (USA), the University of Paris X (France), and Jomo Kenyatta University (Kenya) in order to conduct research. Furthermore, APAID is in the process of discussing possible collaboration with the University of Leuven (Belgium).
For financial support we have partnerships with several companies and schools in France and The Netherlands.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) .
How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
Many organization are founded to help developing countries improving quality of life of 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). Therefore, especially women and girls with disabilities still face discrimination and negative attitudes toward them.
APAID tries to adress this problem by assisting able bodied sport and development organizations in the inclusion of girls and boys with disabilities into their sport projects (as we believe that we can only change the situation for girls by making the boys aware of the girl's abilities). We build capacity during local courses, consult during the implementation phase of the project and help setting up awareness campaigns concerning disability. Afterwards, the local organizations are responsible for the sustainability of the projects. APAID stays involved by monitoring and evaluating the projects.
Impacto
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact
APAID's projects empower and improve the quality of life in girls (and boys) with disabilities and change attitudes of community members.
What does impact/success look like? Please list any tangible measures of the impact of your innovation
APAID puts a high premium on the monitoring and evaluation of its projects. In collaboration with specialized universities we conduct scientific research to observe the impacts of our interventions. 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.
Is there a chance that your project could change policy (within an institution or government)?
APAID estimates it crucial that local partners work with acceptable disability policies. Having one project targeting girls and boys with disabilities is not sufficient (e.g. it is very important to also include women with disabilities in leading roles). Therefore, we make sure that we discuss the disability policies with the management of our local partners. During capacity building for the staff we focus on a disability-friendly approach. We also ensure that women and men with disabilities are included in the project staff.
Since we build a network of local actors around our projects, these organizations can also be influenced by our approach.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative or expand your intended impact?
As described in our strategic plan, APAID aims to implement and subsequently monitor and evaluate (in collaboration with universities) yearly 2 new projects for the coming 5 years. As there is a big demand, we get many requests from local organization to assist them. We strictly select our local partners in order to implement high quality projects reaching a minimum of 100 girls and boys with disabilities per month.
Temas relacionados à inscrição
SUSTENTABILIDADE
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
First of all, APAID receives money from foundations (NCDO, Wilde Ganzen), companies (Shopex, Bela) and private donations.
Secondly, in order to be more independent from donors, APAID set up an income generating department. We provide services (capacity building/workshops/presentations) to schools, universities, companies and other international NGO's. During these services, we do not only raise money, but also raise awareness about the situation of people with disabilities in developing countries.
At the moment we are also organizing a fundraising event in collaboration with Roul&doorsMusik dj''s/producers.
Financing source
Annual budget
Budget 2009:
Project department (including M&E) = EUR 83.100
Income generating department = EUR 11.000
Overhead costs = EUR 14.500
Annual revenue generated
At this moment we have collected EUR 52.517
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
Board (6), Board of Advisor (3), Department Directors (2) and Regional manager (1). All are volunteers but APAID aims to employ the last two mentioned.
What are the main barriers to financing your initiative, and how do you plan to address these barriers?
Our main barrier to financing our initiative is the attititude towards people with disabilities in developing countries. It is difficult to find local funding partners as most of them do not see the importance and need of projects for people with disabilities. By actively involving potential funding partners in our projects (e.g. joining the activities as a volunteer for one day), we try to show them the results and make them aware of the necessity.
What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships?
As we use a strict partnershipfilter (assessing the organizations on different criteria including sustainability, financial transparency etc.) we try to avoid the main challenges. Of course the small cultural challenges (e.g small differences in communication style) remain, but we try to those issues immediately.
A História
What stage is your project?
Ongoing project .
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to create this innovation? Tell us the story.
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 . 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...
Please tell us about the social innovator behind this initiative
Pierre Bataille and Steffi de Jong have both graduated for two Master studies in the area of Adapted Physical Activities (sport for people with disabilites). As described above, this working field is really their passion.
Both of them also love to explore new cultures. Even though they are only 23, they have already lived in several countries (including 3 African and 4 European countries).
(Optional) To be eligible for an additional prize, please select age range
22 – 26
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Comentários
Hi,
Great to see you guys again. How is the work in Nairobi progressing?
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi Cameron!
Good to hear from you again. The project in Nairobi is going great. We have educated 27 volunteers (including some persons with disabilities) who are now leading all the activities.
Beside weekly recreation days we have now also included outreach programs in which our volunteers lead activities and information meetings in the slum areas. We reach about 200 children with disabilities and 300 community members per month. It is great to see all the results!
In january we will go back to Naoribo to evaluate the program. It would be great if we could pass by to see your program there!
Hi,
I love the focus on disability and sport - thanks for entering.
I'm curious to learn what research is Stanford conducting for you? Also, are there any plans to connect the work you're doing to global and elite opportunities such as the Paralympic Games or other organizations that support disabled athletes? How are disabled people accomodated outside the realm of sport? Does your organization have influence on their social interactions within the community?
Thanks,
Stephani
Nike
Hi Stephani,
Thank you for your comment. Let me try to answer your questions clearly:
1. Cheri Blauwet from Stanford University (you might also know her as Paralympic medalist sponsored by Nike) will do research with us on the impact of physical activity on girls and boys with physical disabilities in Uganda. To this end, we will conduct a qualitative assessment of physical well being, self confidence, (decreased) sense of stigmatization, and community integration.
2. APAID partners with local sport and development organizations in order to implement projects (as they have experience in organizing sport projects with social goals). To promote sustainability of the project we build a network of disability related organization around our local partner. These organizations include National Paralympic Committees and Special Olympics. These organizations come in with their expertise and get the change to recruit talents from our grass-roots projects. So far, one of our participants in Kenya has been selected for the national wheelchair basketball team.
3. The network of organizations around our local partner also includes organizations focusing on other aspects of life than sport (which is our expertise). In Kenya for example we work, among others, together with Liliane Foundation (focusing on medical and prosthetical help), Handicap International (focusing on legal and social aspect), Association of the Physically Disabled Kenya (focusing on increase in mobility). By working together with other experienced organizations (each having their own expertise) we make sure that our participants also get opportunities outside the realm of sport.
4. An important aspect of each of our projects is to raise awareness on disability issues, as we believe that the negative attitudes towards people with disabilities are often caused by a lack of information. We raise awareness during information meetings, but also during activities within the communities. Many people get curious when they see children with disabilities playing and come to watch. Through sport we can then show that children with disabilities have abilities. The next step is to include these wathcing able-bodied children within the activities. By doing so we aim that the information we give during the meetings and the interaction during the activities positively influences the social interaction within the community.
I hope all the answers were clear for you. Please feel free to ask us anything else you want to know!
Wow - thanks for the fast and very detailed response!
We met with Cheri at the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco in October. What an amazing and inspiring athlete - she's such a huge community advocate as well and it's great she's doing so much in this arena. Do you have plans to publish the findings and how far along are you with the research?
Awareness seems to be the biggest barrier for communities to change their perceptions of people with disabilities - do you have plans to measure changes in their attitudes as well?
Thanks,
Stephani
Nike
Hi Stephani,
Cheri is indeed great and we are very happy to work with her. The research in Uganda will only start in February 2009, however the research in Kenya (in collaboration with Paris University) has already started. We collected the baseline data in March of this year and will go back to collect follow-up data in January 2009 (and again in the year after).
We find it very important to publish and present our studies in order to give exposure to this new field of APA and development to the scientific world. As soon as we have the follow-up data and the article written about the Kenyan project, we will submit it to several journals. We have also presented our research so far in seminars and at universities. In July 2009 we will be presenting our work during the International Seminar on Adapted Physical Activity (ISAPA).
Regarding the change in attitudes, we do plan to measure it. As a pilot study we already measured change in attitudes of volunteers before and after the course. In Uganda we will use the same questionnaire to analyze changes in attitude of community members.
We're looking forward for the next questions :)!
Hi,
I am impressed with your program and I find it great that you partner-up with so many organisations and volunteers.
I am especially interested in the methods that you connect to Volunteers. What kind of methods do you use to recruit them ? Do you see a decrease in the number of of volunteers interested? (the final report I read read that this was the trend)
thanks in advance
cheers
Hi Aykan,
Thank you for your comment.
The question you ask is a very important one as for every organization working with volunteers it is critical to try and bind them to your project.
We recruit our volunteers from special schools (teachers), disability related organizations, and from local partner organizations. In this way, we increase the change of keeping our volunteers for a longer period as they have the passion of working with children with disabilities.
We actually connect with the volunteers by letting them own the activities of the project. The volunteers have chosen a representative board among themselves that is making all the decisions about the project. In this way they feel responsible and more attached to the project. We also give them the opportunity to keep on updating their knowledge on adapted sports by porviding them with yearly courses.
Of course some volunteers do sometimes drop out (when they find a job for example), but up to now the number of those interested has only continued to raise.
I hope that I have been answering you question to your satisfaction.
Thanks again for your support!
Hello guys,
What a great entry! It is so good when projects use audiovisuals to show their work. You give life and faces to a bunch of words. :)
Women Win would like to invite to join its group and participate in the topics debate. Just go to http://sportforchange.changemakers.com/en-us/group/womenwin and click on join this group.
Good Luck!
Hi Renata,
Thank you for this positive reaction and for the invitation.
Having met Astrid Aafjes and some of Womenwins fellows we are highly aware of the great work you are doing. We therefore already became members of the group as soon as we saw the possibility existed. Unfortunately we weren't able to actively participate up to now as we are in Uganda with only limited access to (very slow) internet. However we are trying to keep updated on the topics debated and hope to be able to join the discussion soon!
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