Multi-sectoral approach of using sport to improve the lives of young refugees

The refugee crisis in Central and Eastern Africa has worsened in the last year, with refugees fleeing to Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania as a result of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. According to UNHCR, as of August 2022, 92,338 new arrivals were recorded in Uganda, and they settled in the various refugee settlements. A number of CSOs have come up with interventions to improve the rehabilitation of these refugees, and one such intervention is the Game Connect project.

Supported by the Olympic Refuge Foundation, the Game Connect project is a sport for protection intervention whose main goal is to use sport to improve the mental health of over 10,000 refugees and host community youth in five refugee settlements in Uganda.

With five partners in the consortium, including the AVSI Foundation, UNHCR, Right To Play, Youth Sport Uganda, and the National Olympic Committee (NOC), the project is a classic example of how different elements of the sports ecosystem can come and work together to address the refugee situation in Uganda.

Using a structured sport for protection curriculum, the sport for development and humanitarian organisations deliver 13 life skills to the young people, such as coping with emotions and stress, a sense of belonging, and self-efficacy, with an aim to improve their skills and capacities to support their psychosocial wellbeing and mental health and apply these in their daily lives.

The NOC additionally supports the youth with talent identification and linkages to clubs and federations because it cannot be denied that every time you involve young people in sport activities, you are bound to find talent and skills. Creating linkages for the young gives hope, unravels excellence, and builds resilient human beings who believe that you can be anything that you want to be; you only have to start your journey.

Collaborations between National Olympic Committees, sport for development organisations, and humanitarian organisations are essential for sport to achieve its full potential in giving the refugees the solution that they require.

It is important to note, however, that these collaborations can only be successful if refugees are at the centre of the programming. A refugee coach, for example, delivering a sports session to fellow refugees, as in the Game Connect project, would incite hope and enthusiasm among the participants. They will readily engage in the sport, and seeing their coach or peer leader at the front gives them the zeal to become like him or her. This chain reaction fosters the growth and generation of responsible young people who, despite their forced displacement, can contribute positively to their community.