Jeg starter med oppvarmingsaktiviteter eller lokale sanger som alle barna kan. Dette kan være "Gjør som jeg gjør" eller "Følg lederen". Så ønsker jeg barna velkommen og introduserer hvilken lek vi skal leke og hvilke hovedelementer den har innen læring. Som leder for aktiviteten demonsterer jeg leken sammen et par frivillige fra gruppa. Dette for å sikre at alle barna forstår hvordan leken skal gjennomføres. Så diskuterer vi aktiviteten i etterkant med barna ved å stille spørsmål om hva de lærte og hvordan de kan bruke dette videre", sier Mary som er Juniorleder ved LYMPDA - Lubya Youth Manpower Development Agency i Kampala, Uganda. LYMPDA er en lokal organisasjon initiert av lokale ungdommer. Formålet er å mobilisere barn og unge til å stoppe spredning av HIV gjennom sykkelsporten.
By Atuhura Tadeo
Right To Play Country & Regional Communications Coordinator, EASA- East&South Africa
Mary is among the 1000 children who are now performing a Junior Leader role during sport and play across Right To Play projects in Uganda. The Junior Leader concept was developed around 1997 after a realization by the coaches that there were children who were interested in leading fellow children in games. These children volunteered to always lead sports and play activities whenever the coach didn’t show up or when there were many children in the play field.
Junior Leaders are children identified and mentored by Coaches to lead peers or younger children in sport and play activities. This is aimed at offering children to undertake leadership roles and above all sustaining the implementation of sport and play activities in the communities.
Peter Etabu, Country Manager Right To Play Uganda, sees the Junior Leader Concept as a future for Right To Play. The Junior Leaders are going to form a significant implementation team of the sport and play activities. The concept of junior leaders is one of the strategies to answer sustainability issues of the program. It is helping to offer leadership skills to the children in the various communities.
Uganda country program is reaching out to more than 150,000 children as of quarter two of 2009. This number is reached by almost 1.800 coaches, which makes it overwhelming for the coach to reach out to all the children effectively. This is also based on the realization that there is a high demand for Right To Play activities in the communities.
Today sport and play activities are spreading to all the primary schools through the partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports. This has in the end increased on the outreach. Through the junior leaders, sport and play activities are able to reach out to many more children with no additional costs. Junior leaders foster quality program delivery, demonstrate leadership to the younger children, form a direct link to program sustainability and a total program ownership by the community from generation to generation.
“With the Junior Leaders sport and play activities will remain resident in the community. The children are empowered to lead others and are committed to do this over and over again. They love it and live it”, says Sandra Opio, Project Coordinator Kampala project. Wongo Charles and Esther, both Right To play coaches in Arua and Lira, describe junior leaders as a great component in ensuring the continuity of sport and play activities. “Even when you are sick you are not worried that the children will not play the games. This has been made possible through the inception of the Junior Leader Concept where children lead their fellow children,” say Wongo and Esther.
Junior Leaders are mentored and nurtured by the coaches during sport and play. During play activities coaches are part and partial of the team of children who plays the game. They help to guide the discussion during the “Reflect – Connect – Apply”-process to enhance more learning. This is done with the intention of empowering the junior leaders with skills of conducting Reflect-Connect-Apply like communication, self-esteem, confidence, leadership and so on and ensuring consistence flow of information as a result of a particular game.
“The adult person, coach/leader, in the group helps to guide the junior leader in case tricky or complicated challenges or questions occur during the discussion. This is peculiar with the Live Safe Play Safe games for example “Don’t trust your eyes”, immune system that ignite of children thinking and triggers of many questions from the children in relation to perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes on HIV/AIDS scourge”, explains Thomas Breistein, Right To Play’s Regional Training Officer in EASA-region – East Africa South Africa.
“The Junior Leader Concept has become a reality in the EASA-region, with strongholds in Uganda”, Thomas adds. Godfrey, the National Training Officer in Tanzania, describes the junior leader concept as a tool to establishing strong bonds among the children and their peers during sport and play activities. “The Junior Leaders help to transfer the key learning messages to fellow children in simple and effective ways. They know how to relate to each other easily,” says Godfrey
To Adong Grace, a Junior Leader in Lira, Northern part of Uganda an area formerly infested with internally displaced camps as a result of the Lords Resistance army 20 year mayhem , the Junior Leader concept, has offered girls an opportunity to explore their leadership talent and healed them of the psychological trauma as a result of the war. “When leading the games, I feel empowered to make decisions. I can make right choices in my life. I have a made my destiny, says Adong Grace”. “I have been able to learn a lot through leading my fellow children. I love it when fellow children follow what I tell them, we learn together,” she adds
Simon Oucul, Program Manager, Right To Play Uganda, earmarks the Junior Leader Concept as one of the great fruits of the sport and play activities in the programme. He describes this as an important step in the program implementation that has empowered the children to take on the mantle of conducting sport and play games without coercion but rather voluntarily.
They have been enrolled to conduct play activities through the constant support from the coaches and supervisors. “To use junior leaders are enhancing and quickening our implementation plan. They form a critical mass of children that help to teach their fellow children. The Junior Leaders are helping us to reach our desired targets-more children. Children teach, play and learn with each other. This is a total ownership of Right To Play activities by the intended beneficiaries and the community”, he says.
Meanwhile in Oruching and Nakivale, located in the south western part of Uganda, Junior Leaders have bridged the gap created by routine transfer of teachers from one school to another. The children continue with the sport and play activities in the event that the teacher has been transferred to another school, explains Francis Muhumuza, Assistant National Training Officer, based in Mbarara Right To Play project. “We used to have big gaps and challenges whenever coaches were transferred to other schools. This required conducting new trainings and identifying new teachers to be trained. This is gradually reducing with the invention of the junior leader concept. We now conduct refresher trainings to support the remaining coaches and the junior leaders,” says Francis.