The IOC Young Leaders programme engages and empowers inspirational young people by providing coaching, funding and a network of mentors for them to deliver their own grass roots sports projects in their communities. Let's take a look at project stories of an IOC Young Leader!
Promoting Both Olympic Values and the SDG 3 Using Karate in Rwanda
I am an International Olympic Committee Young Leader–Class 2019/2020, a member of the Commonwealth Youth Sport for Development and Peace Network and a former National Karate athlete. To contribute more to the development of my local community through sport, I founded "Sport4Change Media", which leverages the power of sport and media to create a positive change in the world.
And I am also currently the IT and Communication Officer at the Rwanda National Olympic and Sports Committee and the Secretary-General for the Rwanda Sports Chanbara Federation. I also operate "Best Holidays Karate for Children", which I'll introduce below.
What is Best Holidays Karate for Children?
With support of the International Olympic Committee and Panasonic, the "Best Holidays Karate for Children" project aims at achieving the Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is "Good health and Well-being" and promoting the Olympic values in Rwanda. The project is being implemented in partnership with the Champions Karate Academy.
What have we achieved so far?
This sports camp gives an opportunity to children aged 4 to 16 years old an occupation during the school holidays and instill in them the Olympic values and develop their curiosity in sport by practicing mainly karate and also other sports such as basketball, sports chanbara and badminton to name a few.
The "Best Holidays Karate for Children" project which is also playing a big role in improving the children’s academic performance when they go back to school, was planned to be implemented in 3 phases as follow:
- Phase 01: From Nov 01, 2019 to Dec 3, 2019
- Phase 02: From July 01, 2020 to Aug 31, 2020,
- Phase 03: From Nov 01, 2020 to Dec 31, 2020
The IOC and Panasonic seed funding has been so helpful in securing coaches for the camp, as well as buying equipment for the children. The first phase was a success as 152 children including 47 girls participated while the purpose of the whole project was to impact between 150 and 200 children.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the second phase did not happened as it was planned but we managed to help 23 children to stay active and keep learning about the Olympic values from their homes during the lockdown.
Then, as the sports activities were resumed finally, we are preparing the launch of the third phase and organizing some events to conclude this project by the end of November 2020.
Children learning about the the Olympic values and enjoying activities at home
What is next?
So far, the programme is operating in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda but I have agreed with other 6 karate academies which are based in different Rwandan provinces to collaborate in the future to expand impact of the project.
Since 2017, this project has positively impacted around 600 children's lives.
I am encouraging everyone to join the IOC and Panasonic to support young sports leaders in this era of using sport and social business to positively impact the lives of the people across the world.
