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Project Name: Sport Malawi – University of Gloucestershire (HMRC Charity Reference number XN 720)

Dates: 23^rd June – 21^st July 2010

Venue: Sport Malawi 2010 will work in the three cities of Malawi: Blantyre, Lilongwe & Mzuzu.

Description:  Sport Malawi is an educational and developmental initiative of the University of Gloucestershire that uses sport for the purposes of outreach and development. We are developing a network of significant actors within ‘sport’, ‘development’ and ‘education’ in Malawi to dialogue on tackling issues through sport such as education,  gender equality, poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Our emphasis is on training indigenous individuals and organisations through two-way dialogue in regional conference workshops. With the mission statement of “exploring and engaging in culturally relevant ways, while encouraging, educating and equipping Malawi to use sport for outreach and development”, we seek to empower indigenous people through co-learning and emphasising the importance of turning theory into practice and allowing practice to inform theory.

Sport Malawi 2010 Workshop Curriculum:

Mission

(MIS 1) Mission & Sport

(MIS 2) Case Studies

Development

(DEV 1) Sport & Development

(DEV 2) Sport & Community

(DEV 3) Sport & MDGs

Education

(EDU 1) Sport within Education Curriculum

(EDU 2) Teaching Sport for Outreach & Development

Application

(APP 1) Sport & Preventable Diseases

(APP 2) Sport for All

(APP 3) Sports Coaching

(APP 4) Resourcing initiatives

 

Project Aims & Purpose:

Using sport for development is rapidly gaining recognition as a simple, low-cost and effective means of achieving development goals. In addition to sport’s inherent benefits, well designed sport-based initiatives incorporating the best values of sport can be powerful and practical tools for fostering healthy child and individual development, teaching positive values and life skills, strengthening education and preventing disease (particularly HIV/AIDS) while improving health and wellbeing. These programs can help empower and promote the inclusion of marginalized groups, especially women and people with a disability. Sport’s unparalleled popularity and reach also make it a highly effective communication and social mobilization tool. Sport Malawi aims to establish itself as a model of good practice in this field.

“We will continue to encourage indigenous people to establish sports outreach and development initiatives...[and] facilitate conferences to empower indigenous organisations and individuals to deliver such programs in their community.”

To build on the success of the first Sport Malawi trip in 2009 we will continue to encourage indigenous people to establish sports outreach and development initiatives we will send out a team of eight students and four staff from the University to facilitate conferences to empower indigenous organisations and individuals to deliver such programs in their community and/or through their vocation. Prior to each trip, the students will plan workshops (see above) to be delivered to meet the needs expressed by our Malawi partners. Each workshop lasts 1 ½ hours and is designed to maximise participation, dialogue, and creative and experiential co-learning through activities.

Delivering these workshops through holding conferences is the main purpose of the trip. Alongside this we will continue to encourage the positioning of sport as a tool for development. Sport is not an end in itself, but rather a low-cost, high impact tool to achieve broader development aims, in particular the Millennium Development Goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). We aim to strengthen the current evidence base for the project through participatory action research, and continue to build the local and national capacity and ownership to ensure high-impact and sustainable programs, and to foster greater support from partners and potential partners. These face particular challenges due to the competing development priorities and resource constraints that need to be explored more deeply and addressed in Sport Malawi’s future work.

“We’ll address neo-colonial relationships that can exist in any development intervention by rebalancing the power through “de-colonising” knowledge creation and ownership by “giving voice” to Sport Malawi partners and participants, and making them co-researchers.”

Target audience and attendance:

The Sport Malawi Steering Committee consists of four Malawi nationals who are influential in the areas of outreach, development and education within Malawi. They are not only responsible for organising and programming our visits, but also steering the direction of the project. We have also set up a Sport Malawi Task Force in Malawi which includes key personnel from the National Council of Sport, Football Association, Netball Association and the Malawi Olympic Committee, among others. Through dialoguing with the Steering Committee and Task Force we have selected three core groups that we want to work with long term. These are:

1.     Education Institutions (primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities)

2.     FAM (Football Association of Malawi) Community Coaches

3.     Churches and Para-church organisations involved in community work.

The main focus, as mentioned above is to deliver our curriculum to these three groups through interactive workshops. Conference participants will receive a Sports Outreach and Development Workbook. To partnering education institutions and organisations we will donate sports packs containing essential sports equipment to run outreach initiatives. There will also be opportunities to go into schools, and various development projects and coach sports and deliver some of the workshops.

The Steering Committee is planning for us to run three two-day conferences (one for each group) in each of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu. We will be spending only one week in each of those cities, and as a result it will be a demanding schedule for the students and staff members. Furthermore, the Steering Committee has limited the number to each conference at 100 participants, such is the demand! So in total, our workshops will be delivered to approximately 900 people during our one month visit this summer.

Because many of the conference participants will be coming from a context of poverty we are seeking to subsidise attendees with a travel allowance, while also covering the costs of accommodation and food. We do not want financial restraints to be prohibitive to people coming. Approximately it will cost £10.00 per conference participant. Therefore, for 900 participants we need to raise £9000.00.   

“Sport Malawi strives to be an exemplar for innovation, transformation and sustainability in our development, our education, our research and our partnerships. We will achieve this by building on the fundamental principles of co-learning, community and service, and by reflecting our agreed values which are built upon our civic and Christian foundations.”