2023 was for the MENA region a year of many aspects. We managed to build (self)leadership competences among the young people, grew as an organisation, improved our ISA representativity in Egypt and took a big step towards financial independence from the global office. Amazing achievements that we are proud of as the ISA team in MENA.
We want to tell you more about one/elaborate on of our biggest achievements in 2023, namely ‘building (self)leadership competencies among the young people in our WeGotGame (WGG) programme’.
In 2023 we deliberately took the decision to engage almost only young people into our WGG programme. We were able to focus on the young people because in the year of 2022 we heavily invested in building capacities of the staff and coaches of our partners. Together we created structures where the young people in their community could participate in community sports activities in a sustainable and safe, fun, active and inclusive way. This acted as a strong and reliable foundation to build upon in our follow-up programme, namely our newly developed ISA WeGotGame programme.
How did we build (self)leadership capacities of the young people? Through a three-layered approach, always focusing on the potential of the young people.
- Act as youth coach on the sports field
It is on the sports field where you connect with each other and the youth in their community, where they learn to speak up, gain confidence, and discover and develop their talents. In this first phase the young people organise safe, fun, active and inclusive community sports activities in their community. - Unleash personal power
We challenged the young people to think of their goals, their talents, the challenges they face as young people in Egypt and what their dreams are. This second phase is about managing yourself, but also about believing in yourself. - Lead a (social) change
In the third phase we challenge the young people to organise a community sports event. Utilising their identified talents and goals while simultaneously contributing to a social challenge in their community. This phase can be seen as the transition from self-leadership to actually showing leadership.
Looking back on the WGG programme we can say the programme was a game changer. Prior, it was quite a gamble to shift the focus from coaches and staff towards the young people. Knowing that in Egypt there is a general disbelief in the potential of young people. Resulting in young people who have a general disbelief in themselves and not realising what their full potential is. This is exactly why we felt the WGG programme would be highly suitable and valuable in Egypt.
In total 28 youth coaches (16-23 years old) and 8 coaches (23+ years old) were trained, of which 50% of them are females. Together they organised 500+ community sports activities, where they reached 1000+ unique participants. Amazingly 50% of these participants were girls and young women! We also kept investing in our collaborative partnerships with our partners. Resulting in 10 staff trained from five different community based organisations (CBO’s).
As mentioned before we believe the WGG programme was a game changer. For us as an organisation, but more importantly in the lives of the young people. As these quotes from the young people also show:
“I have the feeling that I matter, even at my age (16). ISA, my fellow coaches and my organisation believes in me. This feeling is amazing. It gives me strength to pursue my goals and dreams in life”
“I was really shy. I never had the confidence to stand in front of a group. From the very first training day my confidence grew steadily. Practising in a safe environment during the training really supported this”.
ISA MENA is excited and looking forward to what the future will bring us.
We keep you posted:
Interested to know more about our activities and plans in MENA? Or discover opportunities to collaborate? Please do not hesitate to contact our Regional Coordinator Tim Hertsenberg (t.hertsenberg@isa-youth.org)
