Why sport?
In the developed world the value of sport and play as educational and developmental tools is universally recognized, and by most they are considered as fundamental human rights. But in some countries, the rights and voices of children are often ignored and extreme poverty forces them to take on adult responsibilities at an early age. Access to sport and sporting equipment is very limited and basic knowledge of health issues, gender equality and many other social issues are lacking. The non-profit sports project lets kids play in a safe space. But more importantly provides education and empowerment through lessons taught on the sports field during weekly sports classes, and special training.
The Globalteer sports project is about working within communities to champion the rights of children and help them to enjoy their childhood. By bringing sport to the kids in their own communities, we provide free access to a variety of activities such as football and volleyball. By combining sports with physical education & social messages, children not only learn new skills but also grow in confidence and find ways to face challenges, assert their rights and voice their opinions.
Our Aim
Sports is fun, but it is so much more than that; sport can engage children from disadvantaged and difficult backgrounds. Sport has the power to bring kids together in a safe space. It lets kids be kids in a place where children’s voices are often ignored and many are forced to grow up much too quickly. Kids inherently learn valuable lessons from playing sport, from basic communication skills to teamwork to healthy lifestyles. We believe the power of play and sport can help to drive positive change!
Our Impact
As a non-profit Organization, our program has developed over the past few years! We now deliver a range of physical education and sports to more than 2000 disadvantaged kids in Siem Reap through weekly coaching sessions with different sport lessons for boys and girls and special training project. From football to volleyball and fun-activity games, we are introducing new physical education, building new skills as well as after school programs and creating new opportunities through sport.
Our Mission
Our Sports Programme has Five Founding Principles with one over-arching goal:
Bringing sports to groups of children who otherwise would not have them and empowering them socially along the way.
1. Physical education
The lessons have been introduced into our rural non-profit sports program in Cambodia, as a means to educate children about the human body; how to best handle and maintain it best. Here, the children have been introduced to the benefits of stretching exercises and warm-up routines prior to engaging in sports. These simple exercise routines can help children not only in sport performance, but throughout their lives. Our program also provides information and practical demonstrations to children on how to handle injuries and bruises.
2. Sports Festivals and yearly games – Siem Reap
In keeping with the notion of our former sports project in Cambodia: The Concept of the festivals and yearly games is very much mass participation of all genders and abilities, not financially restrictive for the children and great fun.
We've had approximately 1,000 children participate – Eight Children’s Centers, Community Centers and Schools Participation from 3 different age groups, under 17’s, under 15’s and under 12’s.
The Yearly Globalteer Games will be a day of fun and friendly sports, where children from Siem Reap’s Non-profit organizations and schools come together to take part in a wide range of sports and games.
In the spirit of good sportsmanship, the games are more about taking part than winning.
Rather like a “mini-Olympics”, complete with an opening ceremony, traditional sporting activities like running and jumping will be accompanied by things like sack races, three-legged races, and tug-of-war. In the weeks leading up to the event, children will practice and perfect their techniques for these new and fun sports.
We will provide the coaches, materials, and equipment to the communities, engaging the students in regular sport sessions. They will be learning mostly the games of football and volleyball, in an organized way, combined with empowering social messages. The coaches will work in the schools and other Non-profit organizations to provide physical education programmes as well as after school programmes.
3. Goals for Girls
This programme involves about 25 girls, aged 16-19. The girls are brought together for a series of leadership workshops. Over the course of a year, the girls will use sports as a tool to learn and discuss things such as role models, leadership skills and the role of women in the community, in the hope that they can transfer these skills learnt into everyday life.
At the end of the course, the girls will help our non-profit organization manage and run the annual Globalteer Games. They will gain real life experience using the skills they have learned, like using their confidence and voice. Each girl will be running a particular event on the day of the games; completely in charge! Having this ownership will be empowering, showing them that they can command leadership roles with skill and confidence
4. Sports Coaching - Rural Focus
Although access to sports is limited for young people all over Siem Reap, it is even more limited in rural areas; therefore, we would like to expand sports programmes out to these remote locations. We have already reached out to several local schools and Non profit organizations located in the rural parts of Siem Reap who are interested in participating in this programme. They are asked by the government to include sport in their curriculum, but they do not have the supplies or know-how, and are genuinely interested in having assistance.
5. Sports for Social Impact
While sports coaching is more about learning the mechanics, skills, teamwork, and rules of a sport more than anything else, these sessions can also be used as a tool to impart important social messages for these children and young adults.
The Sports for Social Impact programme will take place in between regular coaching sessions, as a way to break up any monotony throughout the year and keep things interesting for the participants.
Specific sporting activities will be designed to teach about the following 5 important social topics that can be taken directly from the playing field into everyday life:
- Children’s Rights
- The Environment
- Gender Equality
- Alcohol / Drug Abuse
- Corruption and Fair Play
Taking pauses in the training schedules will be welcome respite, and the lessons learned through theses activities will be invaluable. They will encourage group discussion, outside-the-box thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, creativity, equality, and self-confidence.
For all the programme areas, we want to promote and encourage:
Quality over Quantity How to deliver and how to measure impact, not just count numbers of the participants.
A Truly Democratic Programme How to ensure that children participate in a meaningful and an impactful programme that is designed with their input and best interest in mind.
Appropriate Use of Resources How to get the most out of trained and untrained staff in a fair and symbiotic way.
The key Values of Fair play, Sportsmanship and Self-improvement.
