ABOUT RIGHT TO PLAY
Q. Who is Right To Play?
A. Right To Play is the leading international humanitarian and development organization using the transformative power of sport and play to build essential skills in children and thereby drive social change in communities affected by war, poverty and disease. Right To Play creates a safe place for children to learn and fosters the hope that is essential for children to envision and realize a better future.
Q. What does Right To Play do?
A. Right To Play uses sport and play programs to promote opportunities for development, teach life skills and health education and build stronger, more peaceful communities. To do this, Right To Play trains local Coaches to run programs, thereby creating the foundation in a community for regular and long-term sport and play programming and for individual and community leadership. Right To Play also uses sport and play to mobilize and educate communities around key health issues to support national health objectives, in particular HIV and AIDS prevention and awareness and vaccination campaigns.
Q. Who are Right To Play’s beneficiaries?
A. The children Right To Play works with have been seriously affected by conflict, poverty and disease. Right To Play Coaches help to provide normalization to these children, by getting the children out and active. Through regular sport and play activities, Right To Play Coaches also teach children about self-esteem, conflict resolution, and important health issues (such as the importance of washing their hands or getting vaccinated).
Q. Why are sport and play the most effective tool to help children build crucial life skills?
A. Sport and play are essential development building blocks, helping to foster healthy physical, social and emotional development. Nothing else has the universal appeal of sport—it crosses ethnic, cultural, gender, and linguistic lines. Sport has the power to reach and teach like no other medium.
Q. When was Right To Play founded?
A. Right To Play evolved out of Olympic Aid, a fundraising organization conceived by the Lillehammer Olympic Organizing committee in 1994. Four-time gold medalist Johann Olav Koss, now President and CEO of Right To Play, was the lead Athlete Ambassador for Olympic Aid. Olympic Aid raised millions of dollars, which went to fund projects for children in disadvantaged situations. In 2000, we were registered as an official implementing organization using sport as a tool for development, peace and health, changing our name to Right To Play in 2003.
Q. What is The Red Ball?
A. The Red Ball is our symbol. We use the Red Ball in our logo, in marketing and promoting Right To Play, and in our games with children all over the world. The Red Ball connects children, communities, our Coaches and our athletes all around the world.
Q. What is written on The Red Ball?
A. Right To Play’s philosophy “LOOK AFTER YOURSELF, LOOK AFTER ONE ANOTHER” is written on the Red Ball. This philosophy embodies the best values of sport and reinforces that through sport we learn to take care of our mind and bodies, the importance of teamwork and cooperation and to look after those around us.
Q. Does Right To Play have any political or religious associations?
A. Right To Play is a non-partisan organization that partners with organizations that support the rights and beliefs of all individuals. On occasion, Right To Play may work with local faith-based organizations (FBOs) to implement our non-denominational programs. This partnership does not indicate support for, or association with, the organization’s religious affiliation. Right To Play does not work with political organizations.
ATHLETES
Q. What is the role of Athlete Ambassadors in Right To Play?
A. Right To Play is supported by an international team of top athletes from more than 40 countries. As role models, these athletes inspire children, raise awareness and promote opportunities for funding for Right To Play projects. They visit our programs, organize and participate in fundraising events, speak with media on our behalf, and advocate for us, spreading the word about our work.
Q. What is the benefit of sending Athlete Ambassadors to visit Right To Play’s programs?
A. Athlete Ambassadors’ trips to the field generate awareness in international media and, most importantly, allow Athletes to witness first-hand the impact of Right To Play’s work with children and allow children to interact with the Athletes as positive role models.
PROGRAMS AND IMPACT
Q. Where are Right To Play’s programs implemented?
A. Our programs are currently implemented in 23 countries: Azerbaijan, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru, Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza), Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Zambia.
Q. How does Right To Play deliver its child development programs?
A. Right To Play has a unique delivery model—a global team of staff and volunteers who train local Coaches. These local Coaches ensure that communities take ownership of projects and that project impact is sustainable over the long term.
Q. What life skills and values can you learn from sport and play?
A. Sport and play can teach important life skills and values including leadership skills, teamwork, fair play, conflict resolution, inclusion, self-esteem, communication, commitment, compassion, respect, optimism, integrity, and joy.
Q. What do local Coaches learn?
A. In addition to learning to run regular sport and play programs, Right To Play Coaches learn practical skills of leadership, communication, project management, event organization, conflict resolution, and peace-building skills that help them to build a stronger future and a stronger community.
Q. Does Right To Play financially support its local Coaches? Are there any incentives?
A. Right To Play promotes the spirit of volunteerism in every project. In each location, assessments are done to analyze all the needs of the community before Right To Play enters and determines incentives. Right To Play motivates Coaches by promoting the skills learned.
Q. What results has Right To Play had?
A. In 2007, Right To Play published Results, its first comprehensive review of the organization’s impact since embarking upon on its mission to improve the lives of children in some of the world’s most disadvantaged areas. Right To Play has seen the number of children reached in regular activity (as well as festivals, summer camps and other events) grow from 37,178 in 2001 to more than 1 million in 2009. Similarly, the number of active Coaches that are engaging children in regular activity increased from 180 in 2001 to almost 14,000 in 2009. A copy of Results can be found here.
Q. Do you ever change your curriculum or update your modules?
A. Our objective is to integrate the best learning and most effective practices from our current programs with the latest expertise of academic, thematic and Sport for Development leaders to update and create our sport and play curriculum and better align it with desired behaviour change and impacts. We work with a team of Curriculum Experts and with many representatives from Right To Play project locations around the world to redesign existing resources and create new resources that support continued learning, assessment and on-going improvement.
POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Q. Is Right To Play involved in policy work?
A. Yes. Because Right To Play is committed to every child’s right to play we take an active role in research and policy development in this area. Our aim is to engage leaders on all sides of development, sport, business and media to ensure every child experiences the positive benefits of sport and play.
Q. What is “Sport for Development and Peace”?
A. The term Sport for Development and Peace evolved out of the growing evidence that sport enhances healthy development in children and builds stronger communities. Sport is now recognized as an effective tool in the pursuit of development and peace by international experts in the fields of development, education, health, sport, economic and conflict resolution.
Find out more in our Policy section.
Q. Where does Right To Play’s funding come from?
A. Right To Play funding comes from various government partners and UN agencies, as well as from the public, corporations and foundations. Right To Play receives generous funding from the following government partners: Canada Fund; Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); Knowledge and Human Development Authority (Dubai); Netherlands (Dutch) Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD); Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Royal Norwegian Embassy Pakistan; Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC – until end of 2009); UK Sport; United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF); United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT); United States Department of State; United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP); United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP); United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Q. How much of your raised funds go towards programs vs. administration and fundraising?
A. Right To Play is committed to maintaining a minimum ratio of 85 percent of our funds going directly to our programs and 15 percent going to the administration and fundraising necessary to support those programs. Our programs include educating the public on the opportunities that “Sport for Development and Peace” bring to children and youth in the world’s most disadvantaged areas, as well as our policy work.
Q. Do you accept equipment donations?
A. We do not ship equipment over to our programs due to the cost of shipping the equipment, and the lack of resources available to distribute and manage such donations when they arrive. Equipment shipments often get stuck in customs and require large sums of money to release. Typically the cost of shipping used equipment exceeds the cost to manufacturing the equipment locally. Whenever possible we use sustainable resources to manufacture equipment and we try to buy locally to support the local economy.
Instead of donating equipment we encourage people to take part in fundraising events or initiatives that bring in funds for our programs. If you are interested in supporting us this way, please visit the “How Can I Help?” section of our website.
Q. Do you sell The Red Ball?
A. Working in collaboration with adidas, Right To Play initially launched a campaign in 2007 to raise awareness of how sport is being used as an innovative tool to address critical development issues. At the centre of this campaign was a limited edition of Right To Play’s signature Red Ball fashioned after the World Cup design. Continuing the successful partnership, in August 2008, adidas and Right To Play launched the second global Red Ball Campaign. This special mini Red Ball was sold in adidas stores and online, and adidas donated 100 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of every mini Red Ball to Right To Play.