Sport for Life Newsletter | August 2018
Sport for Life continues developing, now in Timor-Leste, Cabo Verde and [NEW!] Mozambique!
We finally launched in Mozambique, through a train-the-trainers in Maputo, organized in collaboration with Okhaliha and the Mozambique Olympic Committee.
Timor-Leste youth organized the first ever zero-dollar Youth Leadership Camp – i.e., a fully self-funded two-week course. Sport for Life in Timor-Leste attracted the attention of researchers from the University of California and the University of Cambridge who spent a couple of weeks with the team.
In Cabo Verde, the National Olympic Committee continues innovating, taking Olympism and Sport for Life to new levels by stimulating the creation of Olympic Clubs in all islands.
The Sport for Life Manual is finally available in Spanish for easier implementation in Latin America!
Our Annual Report 2017 is out, with key lessons and priorities for the future. And we finally published our article on “How to Assess Impact” of impact-focused projects, particularly sport-for-development initiatives.
Our Master Facilitator from Timor-Leste, Virginia, took part in the International Basketball Foundation’s Youth Leadership Seminar, in Singapore from June 22 to 24, and is organizing a tournament in Dili.
Sport for Life launched in Mozambique in May!
From April 30 to May 12, we finally launched Sport for Life in Mozambique through a powerful train-the-trainer in Maputo, in collaboration with Okhaliha (Mozambique Sport Managers Association) and the Mozambique Olympic Committee (MOC).
Opening Ceremony of the Sport for Life Launch Project, on April 30 at MOC, with course participants, facilitators, and representatives from Okhaliha and MOC
29 participants, many with previous experience organizing community sport activities, took part in the Sport for Life Course during week 1, and organized the first-ever Sport for Life event in Mozambique, on May 5th at Municipal Stadium 7 de Abril.
Closing photo of the first-ever Sport for Life event in Mozambique (Maputo, May 5)
20 graduates from Week 1 took part in the Train-the-Trainer during Week 2, and organized the second Sport for Life event, on May 12 at Campo do Bagamoio. At the end of the training, newly trained Sport for Life facilitators made commitments to continue spreading Sport for Life in Mozambique in the months to come. We are watching and ready to support as necessary.
We see this process as “planting seeds”, with the expectation that they will germinate in these facilitators’ fertile ground and grow into beautiful trees and then forests, spreading Sport for Life around the whole country. Participants and organizers were on fire at the end of the two weeks, as can be seen in this video (shouting a variation of “Just do it!” in Tsonga language).
Energized Sport for Life course participants in Maputo (watch the ‘Just do it!’ video at end of Week 1)
So Mozambique is now literally in the [Sport for Life] Map!
Who is next? Check the Sport for Life Manual & Launch Kit and get in touch if you’d like to bring Sport for Life to your country.
Sport for Life Map with two new activities mapped in Maputo City
All this was possible thanks to contributions from multiple parties:
- SportImpact’s fabulous Master Faciitators Ivete Rosa (thanks to the Cabo Verde Olympic Committee, who relieved her from work for over two weeks!) and Léo Moreau (who generously volunteered his time and positive energy), with support from our volunteer Director Nuno Delicado
- Committed collaboration from Okhaliha (the Mozambique Sport Managers Association), who championed the initiative of bringing Sport for Life to the country and organized this Launch Project
- The Mozambique Olympic Committee (MOC) provided excellent training facilities in their fantastic headquarters, as well as staff to organize logistics and other details
- Olympic Solidarity (International Olympic Committee) provided financial support to MOC to make this launch viable
- The Maputo City Directorate for Youth & Sports helped recruit high-quality participants for the trainings
- Fundo de Promoção Desportiva (Mozambique Government’s Sport Promotion Fund), the state entity generally supporting sport initiatives in Mozambique
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Timor-Leste: first ever zero-dollar Youth Leadership Camp!
Youth Creative for Development (the new name for Asosiasaun Desportu ba Moris) organized in Dili, from July 16 to 28, the 8th edition of Youth Leadership Camp (YLC) – the Sport for Life train-the-trainer, focused on building participants’ facilitation skills.
Day 1: Participants, facilitators, partners and researchers warming up to each other
This was the first ever 100% self-funded YLC: registration fees of $270 ($15 per participant x 18 participants, plus two other participants who had registered for a previous edition) were sufficient to cover the costs of running the whole two-week train-the-trainer, which comprised a huge variety of activities including two multi-sport events for kids. This is significant because finally these young organizers have proven to themselves and the world (we’re sure colleagues in Cabo Verde and Mozambique are watching, but hopefully also other organizations in Timor-Leste and elsewhere) that they don’t need financial support, donations or subsidies to run any kind of activities.
How did they manage to reduce participant fees by 40% (from $25 to $15 per participant) and at the same time reduce the cost per participant by 75% (from $60 to $15)? The main trick was……… NOT to offer food! Some organizations are used to PAY participants to attend workshops AND offer meals (coffee breaks and lunch, at least), otherwise “participants won’t come”. Unbelievably for them, Youth Creative for Development had the guts not only to CHARGE participants a fee, but also NOT to provide any food (and ask participants to make arrangements for their own food). Participants paid, arranged their own food, and were still incredibly thankful for the unique learning and development opportunity!
Of course, “zero-dollar” is not just about food. YLC #8 would not have been possible without the generous contribution of multiple partners, individuals and organizations who brought their time, energy and other resources to make it a fabulous experience for all taking part. Knua Juventude Fila Liman (UNDP’s youth entrepreneurship centre) provided the awesome training room, water, air-con, projector, social media channels to get participants and to communicate about the initiative, etc. Suku Kamea provided the training room and celebration venue for several days (at the headquarters of Youth Creative for Development). We had inspiring speakers from Aliansa Nasional Kontrola Tabaku (National Alliance to Control Tobacco), The Asia Foundation (on gender violence), UNFPA (on early pregnancy), Project Everest (on entrepreneurship and solar energy). Ahimsa-ka facilitated a fabulous yoga session (“The Best”, a participant said with two thumbs up). In the sport events we had participation from the Kulau Village Chief, Timor-Leste Boxing Federation, Youth & Children for the Future Ponta Leste, Sols 24/7, OTAS (youth cultural association), Almarben (music band).
Certificates Ceremony: high-fives and energy tunnel to energize new facilitators to make it happen!
At the end of the two weeks, participants were emotional, sharing how they felt as a family. Some did not want it to end there (yes, there were tears). And it doesn’t need to end, ever: participants made concrete commitments to continue spreading Sport for Life in their communities in the coming months, and should be working with each other to make it happen. They also shared precisely the challenge of moving from planning to implementation. Youth Creative for Development facilitators expressed their availability to help them move forward – not with money, but with coaching, advice and training as appropriate.
Let’s spread Sport for Life to all Timor-Leste! Halo deit! Let’s do it!
Gender Games: Hey! Those tiny girls are flying!
Feto mos bele!: Girls also can [play football]
Who wants to be Mbappe?
Zumba with ‘Bailando’ (getting nostalgic about Sport for Life start in 2015!)
We did it!!!
Researchers from University of California and University of Cambridge visit Dili
Sport for Life in Timor-Leste has caught the attention of researchers in other parts of the world. Recently, coinciding with Youth Leadership Camp #8, two came from far on field trips to Timor-Leste:
- Martha Saavedra, from University of California, Berkeley, is one of the investigators of the project “New Development Frontiers?: The Role of Youth, Sport and Cultural Interventions” (Loughborough University), which “investigates the role of sport, cultural and educational programmes in promoting sustainable development among young people in low- and middle-income countries, specifically to tackle poverty, conflict in fragile states, environmental sustainability, and gender inequality”, with a focus on Timor-Leste, Cabo Verde and Nepal
- Celeste Abrahams, student of Geography at the University of Cambridge (UK), is writing a dissertation on the role of sport in empowering and educating children, focusing on Sport for Life in Timor-Leste
The Sport for Life team really appreciated their spirit of adventure, openness to the culture and realities of Timor-Leste, inquisitive mind, attention to detail, positive energies, and the ability to connect and get to know people. We will miss you and look forward to learning more with you and your research!
Researcher in action: literally getting hands dirty in field work [on the right, green t-shirt]
Researcher in action: is this what they call “Human-Centered”?
Cabo Verde: Olympic Clubs around the country
In Cabo Verde, the National Olympic Committee (COC) continues innovating and taking true Olympism (see the Olympic Charter) and Sport for Life to new levels. During 2018, with coordination from Ivete Rosa (Sport for Life Master Facilitator) it has been promoting the creation of Olympic Clubs in all islands, and through them organizing celebrations of April 6 (International Day of Sport for Development and Peace) with record participation (see video), multiple Olympic Day events (June 23), mobilizing almost 6,000 participants in 8 of the 9 inhabited islands (see video), and taking the opportunity to promote the first African Beach Games (Sal island, Cabo Verde, 2019). A small country doing great things!!
The Cabo Verde Olympic Committee also “lent” Ivete Rosa for a couple of weeks to launch Sport for Life in Mozambique – thanks again!
To learn more please consult the Cabo Verde Olympic Committee’s website and Facebook page, or its “Olimpicamente” monthly newsletter and video review.
Olympic Day celebrations in São Pedro (photo: COC)
Sport for Life Manual ahora también en Español! (now also in Spanish!)
Hola, Latinoamérica! The Sport for Life Manual is finally available in Spanish! (In addition to the previously released English, French and Portuguese versions). The Manual helps launch Sport for Life easily anywhere, and now particularly in Latin America. It is part of the Sport for Life Startup Kit, which also includes the Sport for Life Drive – a library including all presentations and materials from our workshops and events (we’re preparing the Spanish version, to launch in the coming weeks).
SportImpact’s Master Facilitators are available to help launch Sport for Life initiatives in new countries. Contact us through this application form to explore hiring us for a launch project.
SportImpact Annual Report 2017
We published our Annual Report 2017, summarizing our activities last year, including an analysis of our impact and our financials. A more succinct report than in previous years but retaining the focus on identifying key lessons and priorities for continuous improvement.
Download our Annual Report 2017
KEY LESSONS: Codification (Manuals, etc.) helps, but is not sufficient for the project to grow by itself. Sport for Life can be quickly institutionalized with solid local partners like the Cabo Verde Olympic Committee. In other countries (like Timor-Leste), it may require longer-term gradual local empowerment, building processes and organizations from scratch; it is inefficient, but seems necessary to be truly inclusive.
PRIORITIES: Leveraging Sport for Life codification, we’ll be testing efficient approaches to launch the project in new countries, with initial focus on existing geographies and networks: Portuguese-speaking countries, West Africa, Southeast Asia.
New article: How to Assess Impact
Impact Assessment can be a particular challenge as there are no generally accepted standards for doing it. As part of our work to measure our sport for development results, we wrote this article, which may be useful to others focused on generating positive world impact.
Download ‘How to Assess Impact’
We divided the process into 7 steps:
- Identify Objectives: Why are we assessing impact? For what audiences?
- Define the Theory of Change: How are our activities producing outputs that lead to the outcomes and impact we envision?
- Choose Indicators: What could be metrics to assess our results?
- Collect Data: How are we collecting data to assess results?
- Analyze Data: How to store the data and analyze it in order to extract insights, key lessons and recommendations?
- Report Impact: Tell the world about our results, through multiple channels and formats.
- Take Action: Adjust activities according to what we’ve learned, in order to maximize impact!
Thanks, Saerom Choi (INSEAD MBA who volunteered with SportImpact in Timor-Leste), for all the hard work to research and write this article! And thanks to all the people who offered their time to share their views, practices and challenges assessing impact in sport for development: Tom Keyte (InFocus), Laurent Torrecillas (Inuksuit), Diamil Faye (Jappo), Wesley Chirchir (KESOFO), Fred Engh (NAYS & IAYS), Joanna Zipser-Graves (Olympic Solidarity/IOC), Karine Teow and David Gouju (Peace and Sport), Jakob Lund (Play31), Jackie Lauff (Sport Matters), David Duke (Street Soccer Scotland), Maja Hebel and Mirella Domenich (streetfootballworld), Silvia Wronka (UNDP), and Mori Taheripour (Wharton School/USAID).
Virginia at International Basketball Foundation’s Youth Leadership Seminar
Our Master Facilitator in Timor-Leste, Virginia da Graça, took part in the International Basketball Foundation’s (IBF) Youth Leadership Seminar, in Singapore from June 22 to 24. 16 youth leaders from 15 countries worked on their leadership skills and learned tools to run 3×3 tournaments.
Virginia was selected as Timor-Leste representative by the Timor-Leste Basketball Federation, based on the collaboration with SportImpact and the Sport for Life project in the past.
She is now coordinating a team with the Timor-Leste Basketball Federation to organize an under-18 3×3 tournament in Dili, on August 18. Up to 16 teams will compete for a spot in the regional IBF Youth Leadership Cup, in Bali in September (where winners of all countries involved will take part).
To learn more, read IBF’s article about Virginia’s participation in the seminar.
Virginia at the IBF Youth Leadership Seminar, in Singapore, June 22-24 (photo: IBF)
About SportImpact & Sport for Life
SportImpact is a social enterprise that promotes human development through sport, with projects in Timor-Leste, Cabo Verde and Mozambique, and looking for partners and sponsors to launch Sport for Life in new countries.
Sport for Life is a volunteer movement of youth empowering themselves to take charge of their lives, their communities, their countries and the world. Through sport, we are creating a world where everyone is empowered to fulfil their potential, their purpose, their dreams.
The Sport for Life project is composed of two key activities:
- Youth-led Sport for Life courses and train-the-trainers plus practical project roles where youth gradually develop as managers, facilitators and leaders
- Youth-organized multi-sport, multi-theme activities allowing kids to sample different sports and experiences that teach positive values and habits
Contacts/more information: www.sportimpact.org/sport4life | www.facebook.com/sportimpact.org | Annual Report 2017 | press@sportimpact.org | SportImpact TV on Youtube