Location and general information
Access to Sport - 
Gender Equality - 
Healthy lifestyle - 
Personal developmentContext
Honduras has the highest rate of economic inequality in Latin America and over 60% of the population lives in poverty. The NGO educate. is based in the rural department of Santa Bárbara, where barely half of young people continue their studies after primary school. For those who do stay in school, there are few opportunities that encourage personal development, a sense of belonging and meaningful community engagement. Sport plays both an educational and a social role and can help young people to develop values, skills and confidence they can use on and off the pitch.
Project goals
- Help young people to develop a sense of unity and community belonging through sport
- Support young people to develop core values and soft skills, such as leadership, teamwork and communication through sport, community events and monthly workshops
- Train young people to lead local sports activities, helping them to gain leadership skills, confidence and practical experience
- Encourage young people to get involved in their communities by organising and leading community sports events
- Create spaces for children and teenagers in local rural communities to participate in sport and community events
- Actively promote gender equality by ensuring at least 50% of programme participants are girls
Project content
Using educate.’s youth centre in the rural town of Trinidad, Santa Bárbara, which has access to a community football pitch, the following four elements combine to provide a holistic sports programme for rural youngsters that fosters positive values, soft skills and gender equity.
1) UniDeportes sports programme for youth leaders
Activities will be run every Saturday following the training of three youth leaders. These activities will focus on football but also explore other sports, encouraging participants to lead active, healthy lifestyles. In addition, these sessions will focus on building soft skills, particularly leadership skills, through sport, as well as giving young people a sense of community and helping them to work as a team. These young leaders will also receive monthly workshops on a range of personal development topics, ensuring they are supported in their own development.
2) Monthly rural community sports events
Project participants, led by youth leaders, will organise and lead monthly sports events, such as community and village sports days. The NGO educate. works in a number of remote, rural and marginalised communities, whose children and teenagers are particularly vulnerable to losing out on educational and extracurricular opportunities such as sport.
3) Football teams for children and teenagers
The project will set up six mixed gender football teams in Trinidad, each with weekly training sessions. The teams will cover a range of age categories from 6 to 18.
4) The first youth football league in Trinidad, Santa Bárbara
The project will organise and run the first youth football league in Trinidad. This will be a significant opportunity for children and teenagers from rural areas to participate in an organised football league, the first of its kind in this part of the country.
Partners
