About Us

Sport4Change – Sector Overview

Sport is a widely popular pastime throughout the both the developed and developing world. It can overcome cultural barriers and unite people throughout the world. However, there a massive disparity in regards to access to adequate sports facilities. Sport has the potential to be hugely beneficial to disadvantaged communities throughout the world. Young people from disadvantaged communities find themselves facing social challenges of poverty, unemployment, HIV/AIDS and violence everyday and have very little opportunity to develop the skills needed for a successful future. Sport is one way that these young people can rise above their circumstances and develop transferable skills that will no doubt be beneficial to them in the future. In this way sport can be utilized as a medium of development.

Despite its numerous benefits Sports development fares relatively poorly in terms of investment because other sectors such as education and HIV/AIDS prevention are considered to be greater priorities. Policy makers need to acknowledge the potential of sport to act as a mechanism in tackling major social problems such as crime and the spread of HIV/AIDS albeit in a more indirect way.

Sport can also be used as tool for social cohesion as it encourages participants to interact with one another thus improving interpersonal skills. Furthermore, most sport involves a strong element of social activity for active participants, volunteers and attendees alike thus a sense of citizenship and community is developed. Sport can also be utilised in community development initiatives to bring people from different communities together and teach them to trust, support and respect one another reducing tensions that exists and decreasing crime rates, thus promoting harmony in South Africa and making it a safer place to do business. Through sport we have the ability to reach out to the youth of today and overcome marginalization of the poor and rural communities

Beyond social upliftment, sport development projects can also stimulate economic development in these communities by creating additional sources of income for instance in coaching and the building of social infrastructure. In addition, sport can also produce indirect economic effects by improving the overall health of a community that is physically active thus contributing to a reduction in spending on health and increasing labour productivity. Sport has grown to constitute a considerable sector of the economies of most industrialised countries and if more money is invested in sports development project the developing world too can benefit economically.

Patriarchy acts as major impediment to development and sports development projects provide a means for communities to address this gender imbalance. Sport is a field that has been a traditionally stereotypically male arena, these projects provide a mechanism to encourage greater participation in sports amongst women and girls in disadvantaged communities. Through addressing this gender imbalance sports development projects can also indirectly tackle other issues linked to gender such human rights awareness and female empowerment. Sport can give women and girls access to public spaces where they can gather, develop new skills, gain support from others and enjoy the freedom of expression and movement. Sport helps to promote education, communication and negotiation and leadership skills which are central to women’s empowerment.

Sport4Change recommends sports development projects that :

  • promote mass participation in sports by giving children from low-income communities an opportunity to excel in sports that is equal to that of their more privileged counterparts

  • work at a grassroots level to encourage people from disadvantaged communities to get involved in sport

  • work with young people to keep them of the street and steer them away substance abuse, crime and violence

  • encourage increased participation from women and girls in sport which has traditionally been a very male dominated arena, in order to breakdown conventional stereotypes.

  • use sport to encourage people from low-income communities to address the serious social issues that plague disadvantaged communities throughout the world today such as HIV/AIDS, crime and violence

  • Involve the wider community by providing training to older members of the community as coaches, therefore not only providing employment opportunities within the community but also increasing the sustainability of the project. This also enables the project to capitalize on local knowledge and understanding of particular cultures which can ensure that life skills can be taught more effectively

  • give participants the skills to become sports volunteers and therefore give something valuable back to their communities while developing leadership skills which will empower them and give them the ability to gain employment in the future

  • provide people with skills that will improve their employment prospects in the future such as team work, leadership and fair competition

  • use sport to bring communities together promote peace and non-violence throughout the world

1. What is Sport4Change?

A dedicated social network of strong, interconnected communities caring well for ourselves, for each other and for the places where we live.

We make it possible for both individuals and businesses to support bona fide non profit organisations using various currency mechanisms including time, skills, loyalty points, surplus and previously loved goods and money.

At the heart of Sport4Change is the online community. There are many sports-based organisations represented on the site from all African nations and all development focus points using sport as a medium of change. The website showcases the inspiring work of bona fide community-based social profit organisations (SPOs) who are working to promote social development and deliver a social profit in the form of real and measurable life changes.

On the website, you will find up-to-date information on what work these organisations do, in which communities, and choose the one that best suits your personal interests or your business’s objectives. We strongly believe that effective giving is about much more than just money. So we have a variety of giving currencies that you can use to support the social profit organisation of your choice.

Beyond traditional currencies, credit card donations, bank transfers and the like, you can donate your loyalty points, offer your time or professional skills by volunteering, contribute your surplus or previously loved.

We also feature project proposals – defined bodies of work that organisations wish to undertake, as well as cause wishlists – bite-sized requests for some of the most critical, current needs of our SPOs. You may be able to assist them through providing funding, volunteering or donating the goods they require as gifts-in-kind. All organisations will provide you with an online reportback featured on the site so that you know exactly how your donation made a real difference to your beneficiary.