The Tigers Club Project - Using Soccer to Reach Street Children in Uganda
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>View discussions about this entry Country: Uganda
Organization: Retrak
Sport - Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 1994
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Project URL: http://www.retrak.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - RETRAK uses soccer to draw street boys into a comprehensive program that awakens their faith in themselves and gives them hope for the future.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - RETRAK is a holistic, child-centered, professional social work organization, wrapped up in a package that is universally appealing but all too rare for street children: the opportunity to play. Boys living on the mean streets of Kampala are reluctant to show vulnerability by asking for help, but the universal appeal of soccer breaks the ice and draws them into the program.
A street boy in Africa may occasionally find himself on the receiving end of short-term relief services, but is seldom offered a wide-ranging set of services designed to treat the whole child. RETRAK focuses on all aspects of a child’s development: physical, psychological, spiritual, social, cultural and educational. The staff works to build a foundation of trust and treats each child as a unique individual. RETRAK also believes that the best place for a child to grow and develop is with a family, and aims to help a child reintegrate into the community, whether through reconciliation with relatives or foster care. What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - There are over 2,000 children living on the streets of Kampala. These children, mostly boys, are homeless due to extreme poverty, abuse, neglect or abandonment, or the death of one or more family members. On the streets they suffer psychological distress, economic hardship, school drop-out, hunger, fear, isolation, stigma, exploitation, and trafficking. By using soccer as a means to reach out to these boys, RETRAK is able to connect with them and offer them an alternative to life on the streets.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - Hundreds of children in Kampala, Uganda, have found their way to the Tigers Club Project, RETRAK's flagship project, initially attracted by the dream of being a star in the soccer club and then finding that soccer was just the beginning. In fact, they had just taken the first key steps to building a new life. Soccer has always been and remains the key outreach tool for the project -- a means of gaining the children’s trust and helping them break away from life on the streets. Communication initiated through soccer can offer the boys a way into other aspects of the project offered at the Clubhouse, such as the feeding program, the medical clinic, the emergency refuge, educational initiatives, the vocational training program and the micro-enterprise program. Eventually, children transition through the program and back into the community, returning to their families with extensive and ongoing counseling when appropriate, or being placed in a foster home.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - RETRAK has long had the vision to extend the impact of the Tigers Club Project beyond Uganda, and to use the experience and lessons learned in Kampala to reach out to children in other cities. We don’t just believe that the model can be successfully replicated, we know that it can... because it has already happened in two other cities in Africa.
In June of 2007, after extensive market analysis and consultations with other local organizations working with street children, RETRAK Ethiopia opened its doors in the capital city of Addis Ababa. RETRAK also recently joined forces with a partner project, the Caleb Project, in Eldoret, Kenya. In both cases, the programs retain RETRAK’s model of excellence in the holistic care of street children, yet are tailored to be locally relevant. RETRAK is currently exploring the possibilities of extending their work to Kigali, Rwanda, and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - RETRAK helps street children in Africa realize their potential, discover their worth, and permanently break away from street life.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - RETRAK works directly with homeless street boys between 7 and 20 years of age. We have remained faithful to this target group over the years because there are ten times more street boys that girls in Kampala, yet the number of NGOs working with street boys is proportionally far fewer, and older boys who have spent longer on the streets are often perceived as harder to work with and often not targeted by projects. We wish to complement, not duplicate, the efforts of organizations working with other target groups, and therefore work closely with our partners to ensure that every child seeking our help, regardless of his/her gender, religion, race or tribe, can be given appropriate support.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - In 2006,
…The Soccer Team played 44 matches. …The Medical Clinic treated over 1,100 children. …The Feeding Program fed 135 boys per month. …691 children were counseled. ….The Learning Center had a monthly average of 38 boys. …39 boys were supported through primary or secondary school. …33 boys pursued further education -- 10 in higher education institutions, 15 in vocational training colleges, and 8 as apprentices. …34 boys left Tudabujja for resettlement, foster care or to join the vocational training program. What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - RETRAK is a professional social work organization whose staff takes the time to get to know each child as a unique individual and tailors the program to his particular needs and circumstances. While this approach is extremely effective in the lives of the children it touches, it is also relatively costly when compared to short-term relief programs. Finding enough funding to keep the program going, let alone expand it to other cities, is always a challenge.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - RETRAK began as a grassroots organization funded for the first few years of operation mostly by individual donors, schools and churches. Wishing to sustain and scale-up our program of compassionate care, RETRAK’s management team recognized the need for a long-term fundraising strategy. The result is the employment of two part-time trust fundraisers, one in the UK and one in Kenya, along with the volunteer services of a US Support Coordinator. This investment has begun to pay off, and other sources of funds include the McKnight Foundation, the William Cooper Proctor Foundation, l'Association des Femmes D'Europe and the Consortium for Street Children.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. RETRAK is a registered NGO in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya, and a registered charity in the UK. We were recently incorporated in the US and 501©(3) (nonprofit) status is pending. Oversight is performed by an international Board of Trustees, made up of members from the US, UK, and Belgium. A financial audit is performed annually.
RETRAK believes in building and empowering strong teams of national staff to lead and manage the work, and the Tigers Club Project in Uganda is made up entirely of Ugandan nationals. RETRAK, has annual revenue of $535,182, which is used to support not only the Tigers Club Project, but projects in Ethiopia and Kenya as well as an administrative office in the UK. In Uganda, the Tigers Club's annual budget is $364,000. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - The demand is very high, due to the overwhelming number of street children living in Africa's cities and the universal popularity of soccer, especially among boys in RETRAK's target group. Disease, poverty and war have devastated the traditional safety nets in Africa and more and more children are finding their way to the streets, alone and in need of a guiding hand to get them back on track. RETRAK offers them just that, along with the chance to play, have fun…and be a child.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - Strong long-term relationships have been built with many individuals who are faithfully supporting RETRAK’s work. However, as RETRAK expands, new avenues of funding must be explored in order to fulfill our goals.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - RETRAK has its roots in a pick-up soccer team of street children in Kampala, Uganda. In October 1994, the Tigers Football Club was formed by two young British ex-pats as a means of building relationships with the growing number of children living on the streets of Kampala. In 1996, Andy Williams arrived in Kampala and began the process of transforming the team into the Tigers Club Project. It soon grew into a well-respected professional social work program -- a comprehensive program that strives to meet the physical, psychological, spiritual, social, cultural and educational needs of every homeless child that enters the program. It became a registered NGO and UK charity in 1997. In 2005, The Tigers Club Project became the flagship project of a new umbrella organization called RETRAK, with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to the Tigers Club Project in Kampala, RETRAK has opened a second project for street children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and a partner project in Eldoret, Kenya.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - Andy Williams is the founder and CEO of RETRAK. A social worker by training, Andy arrived in Kampala in 1996 to turn a pick-up soccer team into a lifeboat for the city's street boys. Prior to this, Andy worked with young heroin addicts in Glasgow, Scotland, followed by work with young people in the UK and in Belgium. He was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 2006 for "services to disadvantaged children in Africa."
Contact Information:
Joan Townsend
US Support Coordinator Retrak (NGO) Discussions about this entry |
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FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP TO UGANDA CORDIALLY VISIT WEBSITE:
www.palaisdacha.net
Dear Joan:
Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and we would like to offer you feedback and some thought provoking questions from our Evaluation Team.
The impact of the Tigers Club Project in 2006 was considerable and spanned a number of youth-focused targets. However, the organization is supported largely by donors, calling into question its long-term sustainability and self-sufficiency.
Please use this input as both potential insights into your innovations, as well as constructive ideas for how to improve or grow your organization.
Warm regards,
The Changemakers Evaluation Team
Dear Joan,
This is a fantastic entry. The Tigers Club does so much more than Sports! Your effective work with street children and the way in which you empower and help develop responsibility, skills and confidence is great! Your videos are very professional and very informative. Thank you for your great work.
All the best,
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
Thank you, Dana, for your comments. Now that I've hit the "submit" button for this competition, I'm now going to turn my attention to the Young Men at Risk competition!
Joan
Joan,
This is an amazing initiative. I am curious whether you have connections to the Kampala Kids League - they are also listed under the soccer category? It also struck me that you have a natural possible connection to the Homeless World Cup?! Have there been any connections there? On another note, I was curious to know what the root cause is for homelessness among these youth in Kampala and whether you guys are seeking to address these issues as well? It is amazing work you guys are doing and it seems a model for many other entries or at least an opportunity for further exchange.
Best of luck!
Ziba
FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP TO UGANDA CORDIALLY VISIT WEBSITE: www.palaisdacha.net
Dear Ziba,
Thank you for your words of encouragement. The Tigers Club is a member of Kampala’s Inter-NGO Forum, a consortium of organizations in Uganda that work with street children. (As a matter of fact, RETRAK’s founder and CEO, Andy Williams, founded the Inter-NGO Forum.) Meetings are held once a month to share experiences, encourage, challenge, and empower one another. So while I’m not sure if they know of the Kampala Kids League, I do know that The Tigers Club Project is committed to communicating and sharing best practices with other organizations in Uganda. Andy Williams is also a founding member of a group called the 180 Degree Alliance, an alliance of NGOs working with street children around the world. As for the Homeless World Cup, I know that Andy has spoken with them and discussed the possibility of the Tigers Club participating in their program.
There is no one root cause for homelessness in Uganda. AIDS, poverty, illness, abandonment and abuse can all play a role in a child’s decision to run to the streets. The Tigers Club Project hopes to initiate prevention work in different regions of Uganda, with a view to reducing the number of children running to the streets of Kampala in pursuit of a better life. During a pilot phase, we hope to explore criteria for identifying children genuinely at risk of leaving home and to work closely with them and their families in addressing the issues which could lead to the child turning away from the family. Community-based awareness raising and educational activities will further sensitize children and young people in rural areas to the nature and danger of city life, and challenge some of the misconceptions about the opportunities it offers.
Again, thank you for the feedback, and please let me know if you have any more questions.
Joan Townsend