Youth Development through Football
The 'Fun Bus' brings a number of partners together to deliver a project based on the established Youth Development through Football (YDF) Program and takes it to a number of schools, areas and children who would not usually have the opportunity to partake in this type of project.
The project uses a 23 seater crafter bus (donated by VW) to travel around the previously disadvantaged communities both in Nelson Mandela Bay and the more rural communities within the Eastern Cape. The bus travels with a mixture of Youth Development through Football (YDF) trainers and general sports coaches. These coaching staff are made up of a mixture of local employed staff and international volunteer staff.
The activities conducted by the 'Fun Bus' aim to reach children aged from 6 to 18. The children in the 6 to 12 age group participate in a 'watered down' version of the curriculum focusing purely on the fun activities and games of the curriculum. The 13 to 18 year old age group receive the full curriculum. Both age groups participate in the sports coaching.
Essentially, as well as visiting townships around the main cities and towns of Nelson Mandela Bay, the bus travels further, into the rural communities where there is arguably a greater need for this type of intervention. Traditionally in the rural communities there is far less exposure to any type of life skills and awareness programs or structured sports and play activities. NPO activity and operation seldom reaches these communities due to logistical and funding constraints. Hence adding further value and uniqueness to this program.
Background to YDF Currciculum
The YDF curriculum is a fun interactive curriculum developed by Umzingisi in partnership with several other NPO's and the GTZ (German Technical Development Corporation).
The curriculum is aimed at addressing key health and educational issues as well as imparting important life skills. The curriculum has a large focus on HIV / AIDS awareness but also addresses other topics such as resiliency, decision making, self esteem and gender equality.
The uniqueness of the curriculum is in the way it is delivered. It is not classroom based curriculum and is delivered in an interactive manner using games and fun exercises to impart knowledge but also emote response, debate and discussion from the children it is delivered to. The program combines energetic fun activities with key current issues.
The curriculum is a 15 hour program that can be delivered to participants either daily or weekly and ends with a graduation of participants where they receive a certificate of completion.
Once the curriculum has been completed with the participants, their understanding, awareness and attitude with regards to the topics within are assessed to record the impact. The aim of the curriculum is to raise awareness and to shift behavioral patterns with regards to the key issues for the children who participate. A secondary focus of this curriculum is to encourage ‘peer led’ behavioral change by motivating the participants to become opinion leaders in their social network of peers and siblings. Research supports the strong influence of positive peer relations, with peer-led groups resulting in significant improvement in knowledge compared to teacher-led groups. The impact of this project hence goes beyond its immediate beneficiaries and will positively influence peers and siblings who are not directly involved.
Overall general objectives of ‘Fun Bus’ Project
The aim of the project is to improve the skills, knowledge and awareness of both the child beneficiaries and the local coaches involved in the program.The YDF curriculum is a powerful tool and an extraordinary leverage mechanism to develop life skills and encourage sustainable social change. The focus is on developing personalities, life skills and reducing at-risk behavior by broadening youths’ horizons, bridging social divides, increasing health-related knowledge and awareness and providing participants with tools to help them make the right choices in addressing and facing social negatives.