Country of Residence
Kenya
Age
18
Project title
SportSTEMpreneur-Integrating Students with Intellectual Developmental Disability
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
sportSTEMpreneur project blends STEM, leadership, and sports based activities and robotics to equip youth WITH and WITHOUT Intellectual Developmental Disability with future ready skills. Through hands on coding, engineering, and play based learning, students build creativity, resilience, and problem solving abilities. The program strengthens digital access, upgrades school infrastructure, and prepares learners for emerging opportunities in Africa’s growing innovation economy.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
www.vijanaamanipamoja.org @VAP_Kenya Facebook:vijanaamanipamoja
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Growth (We’ve moved past the very first activities and are beginning to have consistent weekly or monthly impact)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
I participated in special Olympic games and I have witnessed firsthand the immense power that sports has in changing the lives of young people both psychologically and mentally. Everytown has a team and players are heroes and roles models. Simply arriving at a dusty field or an open space with a ball wins instant friendship and those spaces are easily developed into classrooms for life lessons and skills. Being a beneficiary of one of Vijana Amani Pamoja’s sports-based programs, I decided to join my fellow young people in Vijana Amani Pamoja in developing sportSTEMpreneur project that combines sports-based activities and STEM sessions. We reach youth at risk using the words they understand and spoken by people they respect. Independent evaluation revealed an extra ordinary finding; Kenyan youth exposed to our programs retain knowledge-and go out and teach others. We know sports at the professional and grassroots level and this allows us to build trust within our schools and communities especially with the youth. Being a student with intellectual developmental disability, there’s a huge gap of segregation and stigmatization for youth with Intellectual Developmental Disability from the mainstream society in socialization and economic development activities and this prompted me to advocate for inclusion.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Kenya’s youth face rising poverty, stalled economic growth, and rapid technological change. Schools struggle to prepare students for future jobs and digital skills. With limited STEM resources and connectivity, many learners lack opportunities to build resilience, creativity, and problem solving abilities needed for Africa’s emerging digital economy. Students with intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD) face major hurdles in accessing and succeeding in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education across Kenya. These barriers stem from rigid academic structures, a severe lack of specialized teaching tools, and deep-rooted systemic and societal constraints. Additionally, youth Intellectual developmental disabilities have been segregated and stigmatized from social and economic activities including sports activities for a long long time.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
sports is the core engagement tool of the sportSTEMpreneur program, used to connect youth to STEM learning, leadership development, and teamwork. Students participate in sports STEM-Based drills, matches, and team challenges that become platforms for teaching physics, data analysis, health literacy, communication, and problem solving. Sports provides a familiar, motivating environment where STEM concepts are applied in real time through ball tracking, robotics, drone footage, and strategy modeling. It strengthens community, builds confidence, and supports mentoring throughout the year.Sports anchors monthly sessions, quarterly projects, and the summer program, ensuring consistent participation and meaningful learning. . Independent evaluation revealed an extra ordinary finding; youth exposed to our program retain knowledge-and go out and teach others.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
As a graduate of sportSTEMpreneur project, I have gained a lot of knowledge both life skills and STEM skills. I managed to go through a training of trainers course and now am happy to give back to my fellow young people as a ‘Trainer’. As a sportSTEMpreneur trainer, we have reached 1,200 students from different schools and community centres.The program advances in industry, innovation and infrastructure by strengthening the technological capacity of partner schools and building sustainable STEM infrastructure that supports long term innovation.As part of the program, students design and construct STEM based improvement projects — such as communication systems, digital learning stations, robotics workspaces, and technology enhanced classrooms — that directly upgrade the school’s physical and technological environment. SportSTEMpreneur provides engineering materials, digital tools, and structured technical guidance to ensure these projects are durable, safe, and locally maintainable. By integrating hands on engineering with real facility improvements, the program enhances the school’s ability to deliver modern STEM education, expands access to technology, and fosters a culture of innovation within the community. These actions help build resilient educational infrastructure and empower youth to contribute to Kenya’s growing technology and innovation economy.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Statistics show sports is a universal language and can be easily used as a vehicle for social and economic development. The global sports fraternity has a responsibility to utilize sports landscape to drive meaningful impact to the lives of the next generation. Professional and local players are heroes and role community models to spur development especially with young people as every field or open space becomes automatically a classroom for learning lessons. We lead these efforts by using sports-based activities blended with STEM lessons to inspire children with and without intellectual developmental disability to take on STEM subjects. As an ambassador for students with Intellectual Developmental Disability and a beneficiary of the program, our program are usually developed through community participatory design workshop where every voice from all the stakeholders: like-minded orgs, participants, schools, community members, and invited professionals both from public and private sectors are included in developing.
How many people are on your team?
7
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
a)1 Program Manager (Ambassador for students with IDDs)-Overseeing the project and conducting training of trainers b) 4-SportSTEMpreneur Coaches/Trainers-Implementing of weekly sportSTEMpreneur sessions in schools and communities c)1. Monitoring & Evaluation Officer-Conducting program monitoring and evaluation exercise d) 1. Finance Officer-Budget control and financial reporting.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Vijana Amani pamoja will keep looking for potential like-minded foundations and corporates to help in capacity building and scaling up of the sportSTEMpreneur project.We are going to develop an online fundraising platform on www.globalgiving.com to help in project sustainability as we look for other sources of funding and partnerships.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
SportSTEMpreneur project is currently working with over 1,200 students from various schools and community centres.VAP staff and volunteers have been visiting schools and community centres including special schools recruiting program participants.Schools have been visiting VAP's youth centre on a weekly basis to participate in sportSTEMpreneur project that is conducted in the sportSTEM unit.Additionally VAP works closely with the ministry of education and sports and we have been involved in stakeholders meetings where we talk about what we are doing with sports and STEM.
