(Photo: Right To Play)

Overview

In 2004, Johann Olav Koss, President and CEO of Right To Play, approached Steamboat Foundation with a compelling opportunity to help build a program that would provide sports and peace training and HIV/AIDS education for impoverished children in Rwanda. After reviewing the program – La Fondation Sport et Culture Pour la Paix (“Sport for Peace Foundation”) – and its leader, Charles Nkazamyampi, Steamboat made a multi-year commitment to support the initiative. Since 2004, Steamboat has provided funding annually and witnessed Sport for Peace Foundation’s growth from a business plan to a highly successful program serving more than 2,700 young people each week in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.

Timeline

• 2002: Charles Nkazamyampi founded Sport for Peace Foundation (SPF), serving 25 children in one site of Kigali, Rwanda.
• 2003: 100 children served in same site with one staff member and three volunteer community coaches.
• 2004: Johann Olav Koss of Right To Play met Charles and introduced his business plan to Steamboat Foundation; Steamboat named Right To Play and SPF as its first Special Grant recipient. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rwanda assigned SPF the task of organizing sport and socio-cultural activities for Congolese refugee children in Kigali. 200 children are served by three staff members and seven community coaches.
• 2005: Steamboat’s grant provided SPF with the necessary funds to secure professional staff, recruit more volunteer coaches, and make investments in infrastructure. 900 children served, in six community sites of Kigali with three staff members and 28 coaches.
• 2006: Steamboat made second grant payment; in just one year, SPF reached 30% more children, serving 1,200 in eight community sites with the same three staff members and 28 coaches.  
• 2007: Steamboat made third grant payment; in one year, SPF reached 38% more children by serving 1,659 young people in ten community sites with same number of staff and community coaches. Due to SPF’s role as a model program, it partnered with UNICEF Rwanda to implement a sports-for-development project in the broader Kigali school system, serving an additional 6,000 students in schools.
• 2008: Steamboat made fourth grant payment; in one year, SPF reached 51% more children, serving 2,469 children in ten community sites with same three staff members and 28 community coaches.
• 2009: Steamboat made fifth grant payment; same three staff members and 28 community coaches served 2,784 children weekly and 120 school-based coaches served an additional 10,000 children in the school system, a program leveraged by UNICEF and other donors. SPF expanded to Burundi as the AMANI Burundi Association.

Related Links:

• Right To Play
• La Fondation Sport et Culture Pour la Paix 

The Great Lakes region of Rwanda has been devastated by conflicts and war for decades. The social, cultural, political, and economic consequences of these conflicts have either directly or indirectly affected the majority of Rwandan children and youth. According to the government of Rwanda, an estimated 2.8 million children are vulnerable - either orphans, living in the streets, or infected by HIV. Completion rates for primary school overall are low, ranging between 50% and 75%.

Conflict resolution, care of orphans from the genocide and HIV and AIDS, gaps in healthy child development, the spread of HIV and AIDS, and the inclusion of girls and other vulnerable children remain serious societal problems in Rwanda which need to be addressed, but the current social and educational system still does not have the capacity to adequately address these issues by itself.

Charles Nkazamyampi

Special Grantee, Charles Nkazamyampi
speaking to participants of Sport for
Peace Foundation (Photo: Right To Play)

Originally from Bujumbura, Burundi, Charles Nkazamyampi knows first-hand the devastation ethnic conflicts can cause. He lost his parents to the war in Burundi, but found refuge in his passion for sports. Charles won numerous medals at the African Track Championships, earned a sports scholarship to France, and represented Burundi at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta in the 800 meter track event.

After his athletic career in Europe and knowing the power that sport has to bring people together, Charles decided to return to Africa to help teach children valuable lessons of peace, tolerance, and unity through sport and play. In 2002, Charles moved to Rwanda‚ and built La Fondation Sport et Culture Pour la Paix (Sport for Peace Foundation), with the intention of ultimately expanding it to his homeland in Burundi as well, a dream that came to fruition in 2009.

"Since the beginning, our organization has grown up in terms of activities, areas of operations as well as the number of people it reaches. Our target group is composed of some of the most vulnerable children in Rwanda. Our goal is to build peace, improve their health conditions and education through sport, play, socio-cultural activities and advocacy.

The Steamboat Foundation has been one of the foremost supporters towards our noble cause. We are deeply grateful to this organization and particularly grateful towards Mr. Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play International President & CEO, for the inestimable role he played in linking us with the Steamboat Foundation."

Rwandan children using football as part of a sport-for-development and peace learning activity with Right To Play
and Sport for Peace Foundation. (Photo: Right To Play)

With Charles Nkazamyampi at the helm and with Right To Play’s oversight, Steamboat's multi-year grant has helped create a vibrant sports, HIV education, and peace-building program that has touched the lives of thousands of young Rwandans. The philosophy of the Sport for Peace Foundation from its inception has been to use sport and cultural activities to promote peace and reconciliation. The program implements sport and play programs in soccer, basketball, handball, volleyball, track, and traditional dancing; engages underprivileged children and youth in holistic development education and HIV and AIDS prevention education; and increases the tolerance, acceptance, and peace skills of children and youth participants.

At its founding in 2002, Sport for Peace Foundation gathered 15 young boys living in the streets of Kigali in a soccer team, as well as five boys and five girls in an athletics club. With Steamboat’s support beginning in 2004, the Foundation established a permanent office and staff, which provided the framework for a structured, scalable program. In 2007, Sport for Peace Foundation developed a partnership with UNICEF Rwanda to bring this program to the broader school system in Kigali. The organization that began as a small initiative working with children in one sector of Kigali is now operating in ten sectors across all three districts, serving 2,784 children, and mobilizing 28 volunteer coaches for community activities and 120 coaches for school activities.

Given the program's stunning success, the Sport for Peace Foundation extended its activities to Burundi as the AMANI Burundi Association, officially launched in February 2009.