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Participation in sport is an internationally recognized human right and is important for people of all ages to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. For young people, sport, play and exercise are vital for optimal growth and learning, stimulating physical, cognitive, emotional and social development. But the benefits of sport extend far beyond the individual. Through sport, we can lay the groundwork for positive, lasting change on the societal level.
Around the world, Mercy Corps’ Sport for Change programs promote health awareness, accelerate psychological healing in areas affected by natural disasters and conflict, further social inclusion and cohesion, and contribute to economic development through a variety of sport-based activities. Our programs take advantage of sport’s popularity and convening power to mobilize young people and their communities, communicate key messages, bring diverse groups together and teach valuable life skills in a way that is fun and participatory.
Our sport-based programs also aim to empower and promote the inclusion of marginalized groups, especially minorities, girls, refugees, people with disabilities and vulnerable children and youth.
Meeting Challenges with Sport
Mercy Corps strives to be a leader in the field of sports programming by developing a series of innovative and replicable models that demonstrate the powerful effect of sport in transforming the lives of young people.
In the past five years, Mercy Corps has organized 29 sports-related projects in 20 countries. To date, these projects have focused primarily on helping youth overcome health challenges (specifically, HIV/AIDS) and the trauma associated with natural disasters. Now, with support from Nike Inc., we are broadening the scope of our work to include programs addressing conflict management and economic development.
Protecting Against HIV/AIDS
In partnership with Grassroot Soccer, Mercy Corps’ Sports for Peace and Life program in Sudan and YES to Soccer program in Liberia trained more than 400 local soccer coaches to incorporate an innovative HIV/AIDS life skills curriculum into their teams’ activities. Through their work, nearly 10,000 young people learned how they can prevent HIV/AIDS and live a healthy life. The programs also worked to reduce stigma and discrimination against people affected by HIV/AIDS.
Coping with Grief and Trauma
The Moving Forward methodology uses sport, local games and dance to help alleviate the grief and trauma children suffer as a result of natural disaster and conflict. During each session, children spend time on high-energy physical activities, followed by games and mentor-led discussions designed to improve self-esteem, resiliency and trust building in order to better cope with trauma.
Mercy Corps has implemented Moving Forward programs to help thousands of children in Peru and China following the devastating earthquakes in those two countries.
Building Skills for Livelihoods and Economic Development
Mercy Corps is currently developing a new demonstration program that uses sport to help young people develop entrepreneurship and employability skills. These skills will help them contribute to positive change within their communities. Our program aims to teach teamwork, leadership, discipline, respect for others, how to win and lose, and how to manage competition — all necessary skills for holding down a job or running a small business.
We aim to help innovative young people identify entrepreneurial opportunities, develop a business plan and create a profitable venture that will benefit their community. Our program will teach practical skills such as how to assess the market and how to add value to a raw material in order to fetch a higher price. In addition, young entrepreneurs will learn about financial literacy and gain access to start-up capital.
Managing and Mitigating Conflict
Our second demonstration program uses sport as a powerful tool to support conflict prevention and peace-building efforts. Sport has the potential to bring people together in a way that can cross boundaries and break down barriers. In this context, it is both a tool for conflict transformation and conflict prevention.
When applied effectively, the use of sport and play in community-based programming can be a powerful way to promote social integration and foster tolerance, helping to reduce tension and generate dialogue. It can also be a valuable way of teaching conflict prevention and negotiation skills.
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