Right to Play

What does the Right to Play organization do?

Right To Play is an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world. Working in both the humanitarian and development context, Right To Play trains local community leaders as Coaches to deliver its programs in countries affected by war, poverty, and disease in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child guides our work. Right To Play programs target the most marginalized including girls, people living with disability, children affected by HIV and AIDS, street children, former child combatants and refugees.

Currently, Right To Play works in 23 countries: Azerbaijan, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru, occupied Palestinian territory, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia.

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 programs.

Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has national offices in Canada, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The national offices raise funds, build awareness for Right To Play programs and advocate for Sport for Development.

Right To Play uses sport and play programs to build local capacity in four strategic areas:

• Basic Education and Child Development:
  Right To Play’s programs foster the physical, cognitive and social development of children to teach important values and life skills.
• Health Promotion and Disease Prevention:
  Right To Play’s programs are used to educate and mobilize communities around national health and disease prevention priorities, including HIV and AIDS, malaria and immunization.
• Conflict Resolution and Peace Education:
  Right To Play’s programs are used as tools for teaching conflict resolution and peace building skills. Participation in regular activities encourages and facilitates the healing of communities and the reintegration of children affected by war.
• Community Development:
  Right To Play works in partnership with local organizations to build sustainable community infrastructure through the engagement of local staff and both local and international volunteers.

Working with our partners, funders and the local communities, Right To Play tailors every programme to meet identified needs. Each programme has specific goals, impacts and outputs. To build each programme we draw upon our specially-designed sport and play-based resources, as well as the expertise of our programme development, research, monitoring and evaluation, policy and country office teams.

Please visit the website http://www.righttoplay.com/site/PageServer for further information.