Right To Play is committed to every child’s right to play. We give children a chance to become constructive participants in society, regardless of gender, disability, ethnicity, social background or religion. Through games and sports, we help create social change in communities affected by war, poverty and disease.
Our programs incorporate a unique methodology that uses sport and play as tools for learning in four development impact areas:
1. Basic Education and Child Development: Right To Play’s sport and play programs foster the physical, cognitive and social development of children to teach important values and life skills.
2. Health Promotion and Disease Prevention: Right To Play’s sport and play programs are used to educate and mobilize communities around national health and disease prevention priorities, including HIV and AIDS, malaria and immunization.
3. Conflict Resolution and Peace Building: Right To Play’s programs are tools for teaching conflict resolution and peace building skills. Participation in regular activities facilitates the healing of communities and reintegration of children affected by war.
4. Community Development and Participation:
In order to create change and have a sustainable impact, we work in partnership with local organizations to build community infrastructure through the engagement of local staff and local and international volunteers.
Our Guiding Principles
Right To Play programs are guided by the principles of inclusion and sustainability.
Inclusion promotes the involvement of children and youth who may be marginalized for reasons of gender, disability, ethnicity, social background or religion. We believe that through well-designed games and sports, attitudes contributing toward a child’s exclusion from meaningful participation in society will change.
Sustainability ensures our programs have a lasting impact and centres on building the capacity of individuals, communities and partner organizations to independently deliver, on an ongoing basis, learning objectives through regular sport and play activities.
A team of top athletes from more than 40 countries support Right To Play. As role models, these athletes inspire children and raise awareness about Right To Play internationally. Our aim is to engage key decision-makers from the development, sport, business, media and government sectors and further ensure every child benefits from the positive power of sport and play.
Each week, more than 700,000 children take part in regular sport and play activities and a combined total of more than 1 million children attend regular programming and special sports events and festivals. This is made possible by more than 15,000 local Coaches, Teachers and Leaders.
To read more about Right To Play, click here.