Playing With A Purpose
CAC leaders Saraswati Negi and Nandini Vijay Kumar recently traveled to Bangladesh to work with coaches and youth leaders from our partners Sports for Hope and Independence. Here Nandini writes about that experience.
PLAY…… the word that always puts a smile on everyone’s face irrespective of age, caste, socio economic background and region. So when we say Purposeful Play it is a mixed reaction of both joy and confusion, joy because it is play but the confusion is how can it be purposeful. So then what is Purposeful Play? As the name suggests, play with a purpose. We at CAC believe that play should be meaningful and our participants should learn through our Self-Directed Learning methodology. We use play as a tool to help our coaches/ participants address social issues and life skills, which helps them better connect to real life situations.
What better way then to interact with young coaches and youth leaders of Sports for Hope and Independence, Bangladesh than through Purposeful Play as we did recently.
An introduction to the Play Based Methodology, Purposeful Play and Education Outside the Classroom opened the minds of these young leaders who will go back to their communities and work with children, adolescents and youth.
At the onset we observed the participants were confused about how we can connect sport/games to life but the next day after experiencing real life situations on field they were able to make these connections very well. As we follow the 80:20 play: discussion method we found that participants express themselves more confidently and were able to recognize challenges in their communities and they were able to come up with different solutions to the same challenge. The coaches experienced the joy of playing and understood the importance of including play in their everyday training sessions.
Gender inequality is one of the biggest challenges that any community faces especially communities in South Asia that are Patriarchal over generations and these traditions are considered normal here. Cultural norms and restrictions curtail girls/women from stepping out, voicing out and moving forward toward their own betterment. The Purposeful Play methodology helped these young coaches identify cultural and natural differences between boys and girls/ men and women.
Every developing or underdeveloped country is working toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and through our Purposeful Play we helped the coaches understand the meaning of sustainability and how education and sport need to go hand in hand to achieve sustainability. Purposeful Play focuses on SDG4: Quality Education where we help our participants redefine success and help them differentiate between Chance and Choice, cheating and making mistakes and learning from their mistakes and from one another which is Self-Directed Learning. As a coach what better education can one give than to help them understand that it is OK to make mistakes as long as they learn from them and do not keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
A coach should be one who can create a safe space for his/her participants to be able to express themselves freely and not judge them based on their caste, religion, community, socio economic background or their experiences. A coach is not all knowing there should not be any hierarchy and they should be willing to listen to their participants, be one among them and be open to learning from them as well.
Messages like these when spoken can be very heavy for one to handle and he/she might not be able to understand the concept clearly but we have created an experiential learning environment where we address these through games/play so once they experienced the situations they were able to connect faster.
Stop OSAEC in the Philippines
Makati City, Philippines. Football for Humanity and sports education partner Coaches Across Continents kick-off a series of online training sessions for thirty coaches participating in the community football mobilization program under the #StopOSAEC (Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children) advocacy headed by Football for Humanity (FFH) and Advocacy Partners Asia Inc (APAI). The course promotes a structured curriculum to enhance FFH coaches’ knowledge and skills necessary for coaching vulnerable children. These coaches will be offering free and fun football sessions to communities where children are at risk of OSAEC, which is a violation under Article 5 of Republic Act No. 7610 (An Act Providing for Stronger Deterrence and Special Protection Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination, And for Other Purposes)
Coaches Across Continents is an international NGO and the global leader in using purposeful play and education outside the classroom to address the UN SDG’s and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. CAC Founder Nick Gates said, “I am delighted to share my support of the fantastic group of leaders from the Philippines, coming together with CAC and Football for Humanity to challenge OSAEC in their communities and around the world. I believe if we can bring fun back to play and sport, then we can heal from our traumas and rebuild communities, families, teams and cultures with children’s imagination at the center.”
Sport and play have been endorsed by UNICEF in its Sport for Development Programs (S4D) as a proven platform for children’s “empowerment, leadership and self-esteem, and which contributes to overall well-being and future prospects”. In addition, FFH and its partners recognize children’s right to leisure, play, and participation in cultural and artistic activities as enacted in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As COVID-19 surged and the entire country was practically halted in lockdown, OSAEC incidences also grew exponentially, thus putting more children at risk in a world that has become more digital, seemingly overnight. As of May 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) had reported an annual increase in OSAEC cases of 264%.
“OSAEC has created hundreds of thousands of traumatised children who suffer in silence. If we educate and empower children through play, we will help prevent, heal and reverse the crippling effects of this monstrous crime,” according to FFH founder and president Chris Thomas.
Football for Humanity and Advocacy Partners Asia formalized their partnership for the project in May, 2021, when APA Executive Director Louie P. Sebastian declared that, “No child should ever experience abuse in any form most especially online sexual abuse which leaves long-term physical, social, mental and emotional trauma. Increasing awareness of the ills and dangers of OSAEC is crucial. Hence, Advocacy Partners Asia, Inc. and PAGEONE, as leading organizations in development communication and social mobilization, are one with FFH in creating a strong movement against OSAEC.”
The #StopOSAEC advocacy is funded by the Australian Government through the Direct Aid Program (DAP) of the Australian Embassy in the Philippines and is supported by the Department of Justice Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (DOJ/IACAT), PLDT/Smart, and other partners and sponsors affiliated under FFH, which runs on a strong child protection platform in all of its initiatives.
Mr Thanh Le, Development Counsellor at the Australian Embassy said, “The FFH project presents a valuable strategy to raise awareness on and counter OSAEC in communities through purposive play. It has a strong potential to empower vulnerable children and their families against OSAEC. This initiative complements Australia’s SaferKidsPH program, which aims to strengthen the child protection system in the Philippines with a particular focus on OSAEC.”
Social media platforms and online technology are at the center of the OSAEC problem, and constitute the “bridge” where alleged perpetrators and potential victims converge. FFH and APA reached out to PLDT and Smart, the Philippines’ leading telecommunications and digital services providers, as both had already launched an aggressive campaign in April 2021 to stamp out OSAEC through its technology solutions and affiliated organizations. “PLDT and Smart recognize the critical role that technology plays in combatting OSAEC. Further to that, we’re also pursuing shared value partnerships with like-minded organizations such as the FFH to strengthen our commitment to champion children’s rights and create safer spaces for them, both online and offline. With technology and sports as our shared anchors, we aim to bring opportunities for vulnerable children to find hope, safety and support to continue moving forward,” said PLDT First Vice President and Group Head for Corporate Communications, Cathy Yap-Yang.
Law enforcement efforts regarding this online crime are led by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the Philippines, which also created the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) in charge of coordinating and monitoring the implementation of Republic Act No. 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. The IACAT is multi-agency, composed of government agencies and non-government sectoral representatives who employ various approaches to combatting OSAEC. Officer in Charge, Executive Director Wendell Bendoval, welcomed the involvement of FFH and its partners in the multi-agency alliance: “Human trafficking is a pervasive crisis throughout the world, especially here in the Philippines where we are considered a trafficking hotspot. Through international cooperation, the anti-trafficking movement continues to adapt to shifting circumstances and new challenges to remain one step ahead of traffickers and protect our children from it. Partnerships are crucial to the movement because it takes not one person but rather a whole government approach to completely end modern-day slavery. FFH’s involvement in the advocacy allowed us to be reminded once again of this collective commitment as we take on another year and look forward to the work that lies ahead.”
Football for Humanity is a charity registered in the Philippines and the UK. The charity uses the power of play to educate, empower and protect children facing the threat of violence, exploitation and extreme poverty.
Indochina Starfish Foundation of Cambodia Accredited by Coaches Across Continents
CAC has worked alongside ISF staff, coaches and young leaders since 2013. We have seen first-hand their growth when it comes to integrating play-based activities with key social and educational learning methodologies. Many ISF coaches have joined the CAC team over the years to facilitate Purposeful Play trainings for other leaders in communities beyond the ISF home in Phnom Penh. And after several years of learning and evolving together in partnership we are delighted to present ISF as a CAC accredited organization in using Purposeful Play and Education Outside the Classroom to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Sport for Gender Equality With GIZ
CAC is pleased to announce that we are partnering with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to deliver a curriculum and training of teachers on the subject of ‘Sport for Gender Equality’. Over the coming months we will be designing specific Sport for Gender Equality curriculum, running online teacher trainings for sport for development instructors in the GIZ network and providing feedback and evaluations to assess the impact of the project. In particular this will focus on GIZ priority countries including Colombia, Western Balkans, Uganda, Morocco, and Indonesia. It is an honour to be working officially with GIZ having had many interactions with them and their sport for development experts in the past.
About GIZ
GIZ work to shape a future worth living around the world. This is GIZ’s vision and long-term goal.
GIZ provides tailor-made, cost-efficient and effective services for sustainable development.
About Coaches Across Continents (CAC) and Creating Legacies 17 (CL17) Influence
Coaches Across Continents is a global collaboration of communities, organizations, and coaches on six continents that impact the UN SDGs and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
CL17 Influence, a division of CAC, advises governments, confederations, global NGOs, policy makers, and key donors to create their global legacies, design policies, and address the UN SDGs.
TapIn and CAC
Coaches Across Continents and TapIn Mobile Solutions are excited to announce a strategic global partnership. TapIn and CAC will explore opportunities to support league management efforts for CAC member organizations whilst finding ways to share CAC curriculum through the TapIn App.
CAC: Coaches Across Continents works with governments, corporations, foundations, and community-based organizations to implement our Purposeful Play programming and create lasting social change based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 12 years the organization has won 29 global awards for their work in over 70 countries impacting over 23 million people.
TapIn: Born out of the hope to run competitive youth football leagues in environments where that was previously just a dream, the TapIn Mobile Solutions platform is a revolutionary user-centric end to end smartphone application that automates all league management processes. Built for players, coaches, referees, field owners, administrators and fans, the TapIn app connects those who make the game happen and handles everything from player registration and coach education to referee payment and post game reporting.
Addressing UNSDG 4 in Sonora
Update November 2020. We are thrilled to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Secretaría de Educación y Cultura (SEC) and Fundación del Empresariado Sonorense (FESAC) which formalizes their use of Purposeful Play in the state wide education system in Mexico.
In February 2020 the CAC team were back in Sonora, Mexico working with PE teachers from across the state to design and deliver Purposeful Play curriculum and Self-Directed Learning teaching methodology to address UNSDG 4: Quality Education.
In the past 4 years the partnership between Coaches Across Continents and Sonora Ministry of Education has provided opportunities for life-long learning and professional development to 500 PE teachers across Sonora state, Mexico, centered on equitable, quality education through sport. Now the Secretary has asked for us to continue consulting for the schools of Sonora, with the goal of reaching all school districts in the state (2,500+ schools and 600,000+ youth). Over 70% of teachers trained by CAC apply the curricula in their classes every week, and over 97% of respondents said they have learned useful tools to complement the objectives of their classes
How do we address UNSDG4: Quality Education in this partnership?
Global Goal Target 4.5: Eliminate gender disparities in education.
– 100% of these Sonoran educators agree that they are better prepared to create equal opportunities for girls and boys.
Global Goal Target 4A: Education facilities are child, disability and gender sensitive; learning
environments are safe, nonviolent, inclusive.
– Over 95% of teacher respondents now find ways to include students with physical and intellectual disabilities in their class.
Global Goal Target 4.7: Learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable
development.
– Over 87% of respondents feel that because of CAC they can support their students in gaining skills
needed to promote sustainable development. The top reasons cited are: we can create consciousness
easily, the tools are extremely versatile, and the content is relevant.
Quotes from Sonora teachers
“ Following the CAC training I do not push troubled students aside if they are acting out. We do not always know their story and it is our role as educators to make them feel welcomed and safe in the environment we create.” – Raúl Arvizu Ríos
“Thanks to CAC I have created a game about a real issue for my students, the changes in US border laws under President Trump, in order to teach them their rights but also to discuss what it means to respect people who are different from you.” – Javier Salas Fierro
“I have seen the children change, for they have the highest self-esteem. Now they look for me if they
have any problems like violence within the family. They trust me and we are solving problems.” – Laura
Elena Olivia Gaxiola
“CAC’s curriculum allows me to address difficult issues in my class because the students can play a role
on the field that they cannot play in real life. It allows them to put themselves in each other’s shoes and
be respectful with each other.”- Veronica Rodríguez
