Impact of Right To Play Sport and Play Programs

Right To Play uses sport and play to promote opportunities for development, health and peace. Everyday we witness the positive impact sport has on the communities where we work including refugee children, former child combatants, and young people at risk or orphaned by HIV and AIDS.

Right To Play’s sport and play programs focus particularly on fostering:

1. Healthier, educated children
2. Empowered individuals and communities
3. Safer, more peaceful communities
4. Improved health and healthier lifestyle behaviours

Here are just some of the benefits of using sport and play as a tool for child development:

• Community leaders, parents and teachers have reported that, thanks to Right To Play’s programs, violent behaviour among children has been reduced. In addition to offering an alternative to idleness that can often lead to violence, Right To Play’s sport and play programs teach important conflict resolution skills including teamwork, fair-play and communication.
  
• Sport can also reduce levels of ethnic violence by reducing the separation between and among groups. Individuals compete on the same teams and, as a result, learn about each other as people rather than abstract members of a hated ethnic community.
  
• School attendance in many of the communities where Right To Play is operating has increased. This increase has been attributed by teachers to the draw of our sports programs. Children are less likely to skip school when the opportunity to play and participate in sports is integrated into a school’s curriculum. Special sport and play activities over and above the core sports curriculum have also been used as an effective motivator for improved performance and increased attendance.
  
• In addition to teaching local volunteer coaches to run sport and play programs for children, Right To Play’s Coach training program imparts important leadership, project management and teaching skills that are increasingly translating into new employment and income opportunities. This is especially valuable when Coaches are being repatriated to their country of origin.
  
Right To Play actively includes girls in all our programs, focusing on their needs, and improving their education opportunities. Through Right To Play’s programs, girls gain control over their own bodies and build self-esteem, leadership skills and a sense of self which changes the framework though which they relate to society.

Strengthening of refugee-host country relationships occurs in all program countries, because the programs are open encouraging refugees and hosts to play both together and in friendly competition.

Right To Play programs are also a medium for HIV and AIDS education. The trust and respect of the coaching relationship provides an opportunity to disseminate important health messages.Children who participate in sport and play develop an interest in their own well-being and the confidence to act on these health lessons.

Other observations reported from our projects in the field:

• More responsive children at school and in home
• Children more confident and cooperative
• Children say they are happier, less angry
• Increased community cooperation across ethnic barriers
• Play spaces become a community priority.

Right to Play Resources

Right To Play resources are designed and developed while in consultation with the field using expert educators and experienced trainers to achieve desired learning and behaviour change outcomes that:

• Promote experiential learning and holistic development using sport and play games and activities;
• Emphasize the Reflect-Connect-Apply learning strategy which allows learners to examine their experiences, relate those experiences to what they already know and apply the learning in their daily lives;
• Promote inclusion of children who may be marginalised for reasons of gender, religion, ability, ethnicity, disability, or social background.

These resources include a Trainer’s Manual for the training of leaders/coaches and a Leader’s Manual designed for Leaders to effectively implement Right To Play programs.

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