Sport for Social Change Initiative
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CARE's Sport for Social Change Initiative is a pioneering program that uses the convening power of sports as a vehicle to minimize the effects of poverty on marginalized youth and young adult populations. Through sports, we are able to bring individuals from
all backgrounds and social statuses together in a relaxed and natural environment that is ideal for exploring serious and sensitive issues. We believe that sports instill the critical "can do" outlook that is vital to a child’s successful educational development. And, we believe in the power of sport to creates lasting individual and social change.
- Sport is helping young women and girls to claim space, build self-esteem, develop leadership skills and strengthen social relationships.
- Sport and sport-based programs promote leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, networking and negotiation skills and enhance female empowerment.
- In 2005, 5 million people were infected with HIV, half of whom were aged between 15 and 24. Sport-based programs can effectively deliver lifesaving information on health, HIV, body functioning, diseases, and hygiene to young people and those at risk.
- Sport & play activities are allowing children affected by conflict or natural disaster a chance to be children again by encouraging resiliency and providing psychosocial support.
CARE is working with Nike Inc. and Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) to demonstrate the powerful benefit sport can have for empowering girls and developing youth leaders. KASE, the Kenyan American Soccer Exchange, helps young Kenyan women and girls build self-esteem, develop leadership skills and strengthen relationships and, through sport, be the agents of their own development. CARE, Nike and MYSA are working together in Kenya because it has one of the highest rates of orphan and vulnerable children and a distinct need for positive role models and coaches.
- Click here to watch a video from CNN's "Inside Africa" show about KASE!
- Click here to learn more about KASE and CARE's Sport for Social Change Initiative
- Click here to meet KASE and read about CARE and Nike's partnership to empower youth through sport
CARE and our Sport for Social Change partners currently work in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Brazil and Ghana, and have plans to develop projects in more countries. We work to:
- Empower women and girls & advance gender equality
- Teach personal development & life skills
- Advance youth literacy
- Promote conflict resolution and peace building
- Provide psychosocial support to trauma victims
- Promote HIV/AIDS prevention, nutrition & health education
- Create income-generating activities & economically empower individuals
For more information, please contact CARE at wlifshitz@care.org.
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Be a Changemaker!!
You, too, can change the world. CARE is supporting the Nike Changemakers Collaborative Competition, "Sport for a Better World."
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