Right To Play

Charity in Oslo Maraton 2010.

Who We Are: Right to Play is the leading international humanitarian and development organization using the transformative power of sport and play to build essential skills in children and thereby drive social change in communities affected by war, poverty and disease. Right To Play creates a safe place for children to learn and fosters the hope that is essential for children to envision and realize a better future. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child guides our work. Right To Play programs target the most marginalized individuals including girls, persons with disabilities, children affected by HIV and AIDS, street children, former child combatants and refugees.

What We Do: Working in both the humanitarian and development context, Right To Play trains local community leaders as Coaches to deliver our programs in 23 countries affected by war, poverty and disease in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Our programs incorporate a unique methodology that uses sport and play as tools for learning in four development impact areas:

1. Basic Education and Child Development: Right To Play’s sport and play programs foster the physical, cognitive and social development of children to teach important values and life skills.

2. Health Promotion and Disease Prevention: Right To Play’s sport and play programs are used to educate and mobilize communities around national health and disease prevention priorities, including HIV and AIDS, malaria and immunization.

3. Conflict Resolution and Peace Building: Our programs are tools for teaching conflict resolution and peace building skills. Participation in regular activities facilitates the healing of communities and reintegration of children affected by war.

4. Community Development and Participation: In order to create change and have a sustainable impact, we work in partnership with local organizations to build community infrastructure through the engagement of local staff and local and international volunteers.

Our Guiding Principles: Right To Play programs are guided by the principles of inclusion and sustainability.

Inclusion -promotes the involvement of children and youth who may be marginalized for reasons of gender, disability, ethnicity, social background or religion. We believe that through well-designed games and sports, attitudes contributing toward a child’s exclusion from meaningful participation in society will change.

Sustainability - ensures our programs have a lasting impact and centres on building the capacity of individuals, communities and partner organizations to independently deliver, on an ongoing basis, learning objectives through regular sport and play activities.

An International Team of Athlete Ambassadors: Right To Play is supported by an international team of top athletes from more than 40 countries. As role models these athletes inspire children, raise awareness and promote opportunities for funding for Right To Play projects. Our Athlete Ambassadors include Chelsea Football Club (UK), Team Columbia, Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), Jose Calderon (Spain), Suzanne Pettersen (Norway), Constantina Dita (Romania), Anja Pärson (Sweden), Alexander Ovechkin (Russia), and Steve Young (USA).

Register now and run for the Childrens Team!