Sport bridges social divides, brings people together and makes societies more stable. The United Nations (UN) has also recognized “sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace” and included it in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this way, sport plays a key role in development cooperation.
At Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI), our mission in this program is to leverage the transformational power of sports to address some of the most pressing social, health, economic and environmental challenges facing our societies today. Our sports for development program mostly focuses on both children and young people in vulnerable communities including refugee camps, rural poor communities, urban slums and peri-urban communities.
The program provides vulnerable children with great opportunities to play, learn and grow. We use integrated sports and life skills learning to support young people from vulnerable communities to overcome challenges, stimulate positive social change and take active leadership roles in their communities. Our program for children and young people helps to contribute to achieving quality education, physical and mental health, gender equality, reducing inequality and ending violence against children hence reflecting targets within the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our program for youth focuses on using sports as a tool and or platform to promote social, health, economic standards of living and also contribute towards solving other global challenges like climate change. In our emphasis to promote gender equality, we put a lot of prominence on girls and young women since they are disproportionately affected by global challenges. The program also promotes peace building, strengthens social inclusion and cohesion and promotes the social-economic standards of living for young people through life skills and entrepreneurship learning especially among refugee and non-refugee youth in rural and urban poor communities.
