YDF in South Africa: Counting on mass participation and school sport

There is hardly another country in the world, where social inequalities are as big as they are in South Africa. Disparities could hardly be more visible than in Johannesburg where affluent Sandton - a match for the luxury of the great metropolises of the world - stands side by side with Alexandra. In the informal part of this township, around 4,000 inhabitants who live in shacks made mostly of corrugated iron and papier-méché, share eight porta-loos and one tap. Most of the inhabitants cannot say in the evening by what means they will live the following day. Some 20 percent of the population in South Africa lives below the national poverty line and nearly 50 percent of the youth is unemployed. Many of them are struggling with the integration into serious employment. They often feel not valued by society and are at high risk to be attracted by any kind of crime. One of the causes of poverty and unemployment, and arguably one of the most serious social legacies of Apartheid is the poor education and training of large sectors of the black population. This reality is still impacting negatively 17 years after the first democratic elections. Furthermore, the adolescent birth rate is high as is the HIV prevalence. And it is mostly children and youth who suffer the consequences and are confronted with massive social problems. They often grow up lacking real alternatives in life and without positive role models, need support and a perspective on life.

YDF's cooperation with South Africa

YDF is currently active in nine South African provinces, implementing YDF activities with partners in all nine provinces.
 

Positive role models and a perspective on life

This is what the Youth Development through Football (YDF) project intended to offer, when it kicked off by implementing its programme in the Gauteng Province in 2007, step by step developing South Africa into a hub for its other African partner countries. As schools are in the centre of the complex reality of socially disadvantaged youths of all skin colours the 'Mamelodi 8 School League' was an excellent starting point. YDF launched the league in cooperation with the Gauteng North Sports Council (GNSC) in partnership with the non-governmental organisation Altus Sports and eight primary schools from Mamelodi in Tshwane. The project started in October 2007 when school sport educators from eight primary schools in Mamelodi East met for a first planning workshop which was organised by YDF and hosted at the Mahlasedi Masana Primary School. The league aimed to create area-wide street football opportunities but the project has ever since been far more than a football league. It combines football with life skills, and promotes the idea of fair play, solidarity and gender equality, distributing points not only for goals, but also for social behaviour.

Expanding the YDF programme to a national level

What started off small in Gauteng Province as a close cooperation with NGO partners Altus Sport, Greenfeet and Karos & Kambro has grown into a national programme in just over three years. Today YDF is implemented in all nine South African Provinces. Current partners were selected following an open call for proposal. The approaches in the provinces differ according to the local needs. While the focus is still on school sport and toolkit implementation in Gauteng, YDF embarked on a public private partnership with Volkswagen South Africa in the Eastern Cape. Two 'soccer busses' are touring the province, bringing coaches and equipment to remote rural areas in order to implement the HIV prevention programme using youth development through football approach. In the Western Cape, where quite a number of substantial non-governmental organisations and institutions tried to tackle the problems that the province is facing, YDF initially focused on networking, following a bottom-up approach and only started implementing in a second step. Independent of the individual procedure in a province YDF always involves the responsible political level, thereby guaranteeing the sustainability of the project.

Coaches as messengers of the YDF approach

YDF owes the speedy implementation process to the commitment of the South African Department of Sport and Recreation (SRSA). To date, the project has become part and parcel of SRSA's mass-participation programme. Sports coordinators, who are responsible for the implementation of the YDF project in situ, have been appointed in all provinces. Coach instructors and coaches from all provinces have been trained on the use of the YDF-Toolkit, serving as important disseminators of information and as messengers for the approach of education through sports. The cooperation with the sports coordinators, schools and governmental and non-governmental organisations facilitated the entrenchment of mass sport not only in the outskirts of the cities, but in the country's outlying areas too.

Sport as a point of encounter

Ever since the project started in South Africa, YDF has used events to convey the approach of youth development through sport and sport as a point of encounter. Sport is a powerful agent of integration as youth from different cultures and backgrounds meet on the pitch. However, only few sporting events are actively used as places of encounter. More often, teams meet to play a match and leave soon afterwards without active exchange. YDF therefore, offers an event tool for coaches and administrators that exceeds beyond the organisation of competitive tournaments. The event tool has an emphasis on the management of social events in order to promote active interaction of people from different backgrounds.

Improvement through monitoring and evaluation

YDF's progress is continuously monitored and evaluated by the University of Johannesburg.YDF also regularly invites partners from all project levels to attend feedback sessions using the outcome to continuously adjust and improve the programme according to the needs of the people on the ground.