60 | JUNE 2011

COMMUNITY

Go’s Annisa Rochadiat met up with Right To Play, the Jordan branch of an international organization that advocates sport for development among children

Giving

Children’s right to play is internationally recognized under Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — of which 193 countries have ratified, accepted, or exceeded,“that every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child, and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.”

KID’S RIGHTS

ChildrenTheir Due

JUNE 2011 | 61

SCAN HERE FOR WEBSITE

www.righttoplay.com

play —\plā\: [intransitive verb]To engage in sport or recreation: frolic.Recreational activity; especially the spontaneous activity of children.

If you want to volunteer, support, and/or coordinate

events with Right To Play in Jordan, contact Haneen Al Rashdanon

at halrashdan@righttoplay.com.

NEED TO KNOW

Play — albeit a simple term — is serious business as far as children are concerned. When children play, they learn about

themselves, their capabilities, and they also learn about others. It‘s a means for them to discover and understand the world around them while simultaneously developing their physical and emotional capacities. Play is the backbone of early human development.

As simple an idea it is for many of our children to just go out there, play, and explore, not every child has immediate access or opportunity to do so. In marginalized communities and regions marred by warfare, the ability to play and exercise is not only a luxury, it can also be life threatening.

Spawning from this reality and awareness for a need to facilitate play programs and sports for children and communities in disadvantaged areas in the world, four-time Olympic gold medalist speed skater from Norway, Johann Olav Koss, founded the Right To Play initiative in the early 1990s. Focusing mainly on communities affected by armed conflict, poverty, and disease, Toronto-based Right To Play trains teachers, local community leaders, youth activists, and volunteers as “Coaches.” These people then locally deliver Right To Play's specially designed sports and play-based programs promoting the holistic development of children and youths, so as to allow them to become active participants and agents of positive change in society.

Working through their national, regional, and country offices spread across Africa, Asia, Europe, as well as North and South America, Right To Play pays particular outreach attention to young girls, disabled children, HIV positive children and AIDS patients, street children, former child combatants, and refugees. The organization’s play programs and sporting activities — known as resource modules — are designed and developed in consultation with expert educators and trainers.

Specifically in the Middle East, Right To Play offers five different modules: Red Ball Child Play (for ages six to 14); Sport Specific Coach To Coach (for ages 12 to 16); Abilities First (for children with disabilities: ages seven to 18); Early Child Play (for ages three to six); and Youth as Leader (for ages 13 to 20).

Red Ball Child Play focuses on holistic child development by promoting intellectual, physical, emotional, and social development of participants. This resource has more than 150 games and activities that also include traditional local ones. In the Sport Specific program, children and youth are trained to acquire life

skills such as the values of respect, teamwork, fair play, communication, and commitment building through team sports like volleyball, basketball, and football. For children and youth with disabilities, Right To Play applies the Abilities First module; an adaptation of the Red Ball Child Play module, but focuses on the social inclusion of those with disabilities. The Early Child Play module, on the other hand, focuses on teaching children basic movement skills, balance, and daily life skills like building confidence, physical dexterity, and cooperation skills, while in Youth as Leader, participants are trained to augment their leadership skills and attitudes through meaningful activities that help foster the sense of efficacy, pride, confidence, and belonging.

After opening its doors in Jordan in August 2006, Right To Play begun its humanitarian efforts by implementing the Red Ball Child Play resource module in United Nations

Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools and surrounding communities. Apart from working in close cooperation with the UNRWA, other UN bodies, partner non-governmental organizations, the Ministry of Education, and local municipalities, Right To Play has worked extensively and intensively among Palestinian and Iraqi refugees, and various marginalized communities across Jordan’s 11 poverty pockets. They've provided psychosocial support, knowledge of healthy lifestyle behaviors, as well as youth leadership skills and opportunities for community participation.

Right To Play Jordan’s Communication Coordinator Haneen Al-Rashdan tells us that the organization’s current activities are aimed at implementing three international agendas: International Inspiration, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and Standard Chartered-sponsored Goal program. Under the International Olympic and Paralympic Commitees-led International Inspiration initiative — first launched in Jordan November 2009 — Right To Play partners up with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the British Council, and UK Sports. Together they facilitate trainings for coaches and teachers in sports centers located in the most disadvantaged communities devoid of opportunities and necessary resources to play. The ultimate goal is to inspire the young to get involved in their respective local communities.

Sports TherapyRight To Play hosts a wide variety of events and programs for children and adults who want to get sporty

In addition to offering weekly activities, or “Play Days,” for children, Right To Play has also organized many major play and sporting events throughout the years that have contributed to a combined reach of more than 25,000 children and youth, and

over 800 teachers and community members in

Jordan since 2006.As of 2009, Right To Play has also organized special events specifically tailored to encourage the

greater participation of girls in sports, as

well as educate them on the benefits of physical activities and play through “football clinics” and friendly football matches.

In fact, the German FC Bayern Munich ladies’ team was recently invited to Amman to help inspire the budding national ladies’ football team. These events really help in boosting the girls’ self-confidence and teamwork skills.

Additionally, Right To Play ’s Goal program, which was launched in Amman, Irbid, and Zarqa earlier this year, involves Standard Chartered Bank staff members as volunteers in delivering Right To Play’s modules, play events, and mentoring participants.