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>View discussions about this entry País: Palestine
Organization: PACES
Sport - Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2006
Project URL: http://www.pacescharity.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Using sports to provide a sanctuary for children; one that gets them off the streets and away from the clutches of potential extremism.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - PACES' innovation is unique because it creates sanctuaries for the children to go to where they feel safe, productive and happy. Within such sanctuaries the children learn and develop skills, and are talked to about many social issues such as work-ethic, community service, avoidance of militancy and violence, and hygiene to mention but a few. These sanctuaries "isolate" the children, albeit for a few hours, from the hopelessness and frustrations of their normal lives. Furthermore, in a conservative society where not much currency is given to sports excellence, we encourage the children, girls and boys alike, to develop and improve their skills. We take team work a step further by pooling together groups of 25 children of varying skills so that they learn to support one another and develop the ability to work as teams: this is of critical importance in a society that is so fragmented and isolated.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - The central problem for Palestinian children is lack of direction and hope. If a child is left idle on the street, he or she are then exposed to drugs, smoking, and in this case [exposure] to extremism that may result in violence. We provide an alternative for the children by having programs that they can go to instead of being unsupervised on the streets with no hope or direction. PACES provides a sanctuary in which children can enjoy sports and learn.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - We create sports programs and activities at community centers in and around poor areas and refugee camps. We encourage children of all abilities and skill levels to join these programs. We teach our coaches how to talk to the children and to become their mentors as well as their coaches. We also provide instructional clinics for the coaches to improve their abilities and give them an opportunity to develop their own careers. Our coaching sessions are frequent and therefore provide continuity for the children and hence there are less gaps of time through which the children could lose their focus and their momentum. We now have 120 coaches who also have hope in their lives.
The main problem we are addressing is the idleness that creates frustration and hopelessness. Instead of having nothing to do, the children now have programs to go to, enjoy, learn from and ones through which they can develop many skills. How do you plan to grow your innovation? - We currently have 1500 children in our programs and have funding commitments and pledges for 3000 for next year thus we can continue to expand our programs to other areas of Palestine. We are also in the process of expanding our partnerships with international NGOs whose experience and knowledge will add further value and depth to what the children learn. Furthermore, as we did with one group in 2007, we have plans to take between 2 and 4 teams of children to Europe in 2008. The teams will either tour and /or partake in tournaments. This will give the children exposure and allow those who would otherwise never have a chance to travel to see the "outside world". Addiotionally, through developing relationships with Foundations and schools, we hope to provide those children who are academically and athletically talented with the chance of getting scholarships and a chance to study outside Palestine. There are also serious discussions about developing similar programs in Jordan and Lebanon.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - Reduce the chance of the children gravitating towards extremism and idleness. Provide them with an alternative to violence. In essence, give them hope
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - In our first 11 months we have had two sets of programs, one for 400 children and the current one which is for 1500. In essence our target is to get as many children as possible off the streets and give them hope and get them away from potential extremism.
We took 10 ten-year olds to Italy and exposed them to an experience that they are not likely to soon forget. The benificiaries are the children, their families, and communities. One healthy child with leadership abilities ( that we also help them develop) will have a positive impact on her or his environment and friends thus expanding the sphere or our impact. As mentioned above, if we succeed in developing the talents of one child to where he or she might become a world-class athlete, then we have helped develop a role model and a living hero that the entire country can be proud of. The last hero that most children in Palestine relate to lived over 1400 years ago and this absence of a real role model is national tradgedy.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - Introducing the children to social issues such as ethics, community service, hygiene and many more. We also stress the importance of family, academic achievement, attendence and team-work. But above all we encourage non-violence and tolereance.
Furthermore, building a partnership with other NGOs adds to the quality of our work and potentially allows for more programs to be developed. As we develop our programs it is envisioned that a sports center of excellence will be built. This will reflect our success and continuity. What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - So far we have not faced any real problems, but future political turmoil or possibly our inability to send money to Palestine to fund our programs could be the main barriers in the future: but this would not be due to internal financial situation, but because we may not be able to transfer funds or send equipment and material to Palestine to sustain our programs should the West Bank be subjected to the same restrictions Gaza is under at the moment.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - PACES' appraoch to financing its programs is very simple and yet unconventional. There are many private foundations in Palestine, and there is a complete absence of trusted and efficient government support. So, in PACES I created a middle-ground: I initially approached all the successful Palestinian men and women that I knew and asked for an annual commitment of $5,000 from each of them. We now have over 100 committed donors and the list is expanding daily. We now accept up to $10,000 but for those who want to give more we just created an endowment/reserve account. The cash contributions received to date are about $450,000. We receive funding quarterly. We expect to get about $750,000 in 2008 excluding money for the endowment account.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. Our annual budget for 2007 programs is $400,000 (revenue over $450,000) and about $650,000 (revenue over $750,000) for the 2008 programs. We now have 3 full-time staff, 3 part time staff and the 120 coaches and assistant coaches. This will increase in mid-2008 as our programs double to include activities for 3000 children.
I am the only full-time volunteer at PACES. And this was an intentional policy decision in order to project that PACES was not merely short-term feel-good project , but a long-term one by those who fund and run it. One worthy point here regarding our finances: UK charity law did not require us to have an audit in our first year and will not for 2007. Yet we subjected ourself to a voluntary audit and will do so again and again. PACES is a transparent organization. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - The potential demand is unlimited. Though we have programs for 1500 children this year and will have 3000 children as of August of 2008, we are approached on almost daily basis by community centers for programs. We can expand easily as our income increases. As mentioend above, there are serious discussions about develop ing such programs in Jordan and Lebanon.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - The only potential problem would be our inabilty to send money to Palestine. So far we have not had any problems and that is probably due to our transparency and above-board approach, and to the respected international and Palestinian partners that we have: NGOs, individuals and corporate.
As for fund-raising, our simple model seems to working well and our donor-base expanding daily. Our financial strength comes from the partnership appraoch that all our donors espouse and they themselves become fund-raisers. What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - I have always wanted to return to Palestine to teach and coach, and PACES is the vehicle through which I was able to do that in partnership with many friends. I believe those of us who have lived outside Palestine need to give something back, but can never find the proper vehicle for that. PACES is ideal for those who do not want any political involvement for it is a progressive, secular and a non-political charity that is exclusively involved with children and sports.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - I would rather not make myself that focal point here. PACES grew because of our partnership approach, and to create the perception that this is about me might prove determental to the organization. It is a partenrship of equals and for it to continue with its success we must insure that it operates outside personal egod, needs, and issues.
Contact Information:
Hani Qattan
Chairman, Board of Trustees PACES (NGO:UK-registered charity) Discussions about this entry |
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Dear Hani:
Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and we would like to offer you feedback and some thought provoking questions from our Evaluation Team.
PACES’ rapid expansion and commitment to transparency is notable and the scope of its current and planned partnerships is extensive. While the PACES concept of using sports as a sanctuary for children against extremism is not necessarily original, its model is efficient, scalable, and replicable elsewhere.
Please use this input as both potential insights into your innovations, as well as constructive ideas for how to improve or grow your organization.
Warm regards,
The Changemakers Evaluation Team
Hello Hani,
Your team is doing good work!
I am part of a new initiative that is working with various 'sports for peace' NGO's. We are a partner with the Asian Football Association and have had football programs in Gaza and Jordan through Play Football Make Peace. Our focus is not limited to football as we have produced 4 international peace sports festival that includes 7 sports. (IPSFestival.org).
We have worked on programs in Palestine, Jordan and Israel with local support teams. One partner is doing a football coach clinic in Jordan, another is seeking to follow up on sports for peace initiatives in the region.
We are looking to set up a small sports for peace 'working' committee to plan upcoming strategy and programs in those countries. We are interreligious, with Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Druzestakeholders. We want to help create an environment of hope and are looking to make relationships with other like minded
people.
One point: We are developing 'sportsmanship education' in various regions of the world. This is designed to show how the lessons learned on the field can help in building trust, relationships and a healthly way of life. We are interested in finding grassroots educators interested in partnering on this long term effort.
Second point: We also have a partner working in Jordan with a goal of improving the quality of coaching in football.
Third point: We also work utilizing the gift of music and culture. Intercultural programs are integrated into the Peace Dream initiative.
If you have a 'local' (Palestine- Jordan based) partner that would be interested in talking with our local representatives and possibly joining a 'sports for peace' working committee, please let us know. The Peace Dream is a variety of programs and NGO's.
Best to all your good work.
John G
Hi John,
Though we advocate non-violence and peace to our children, PACES is not really a "Sports for Peace" organiztion as you put it.
We create sanctuaries for the children to feel safe in, learn and be productive in. As I said in an earlier comment, if we were to introduce a variable that would add stress to the mix, then we would have failed the children.
Do I believe that peace is the ONLY solution? Absolutely. Do I think, given the current climate, that it is imminant? Not at all. And therefore PACES provides a shield from any potential extremism and violence through sports programs and activities to children who would otherwise be on the streets and exposed to such factors. So, we prepare our children for "peace", and when it comes, we will "play".
If and when a real peace deal is concluded, one that is fair to all parties and one that will stand the test of time, then PACES will be at the forefront in normalizing and humanizing the situation between all the children. But till then, and again as I articulated previously, PACES must stay away from taking any steps that will be regarded as political statements.
As far as local partners in Palestine, I have a team on the ground that manages the programs and over-sees the 120 coaches that we have created employment for. As for Jordan, we are about to launch a program outside Amman.
One of our main focus areas is the up-grading and improvement of our coaches' abilities, and we have held internal and external clinics for our coaches, and this might be something that we can develop together.
Regards,
Hani
Hi Hani,
Your programme looks very comprehensive. I'm very interested to see that you are expanding and developing a basketball programme for people with a disability.
I'd like to hear some more about your plans for including people with a disability. What type of barriers do you anticipate when recruiting players and training coaches. Do you expect similar challenges to those you faced knocking on doors to get women to play? Palestine has had a number of athletes entered in the recent Paralympic and Special Olympic World Games so perhaps you could contact these national bodies for support and advice.
I noticed the discussions you have had on monitoring and evaluation. You might be interested in this article from Bob Henley at the Swiss Academy for Development where he lists some tools that are useful in measuring the psychosocial impact such as reslience, self esteem etc.
http://www.sportanddev.org/data/document/document/209.pdf
Also, the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE) have developed a seminar to teach professionals working in post-disaster settings how to design sports programmes for people affected by disaster trauma. There will be a second seminar in November 2008 and it would be fantastic to see a representative from PACES there to share some of your experiences. Check out the website for the latest details or see their competition entry http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/3114.
All the best!
Jackie
Jackie Lauff
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Dear Jackie,
We are initially planning to start small by providing good quality wheelchairs and coaching to children who most likely are part of the existing communites that we have our programs in. Obviously the more chairs that we can buy and get into Palestine (which in itself is a real challange) the more children will benefit. We are also restricted by the fact that even when we get the chairs into the country we will not easily be able to move them from one centre to another, and therefore we need to leave them in areas where maximum benefit is derived. As for coaching some of our coaches do have experience in this field but as part of our philosophy of up-grading our coaches' abilities we will now add coaching for the handicapped to our internal and external clinics.
On a slightly similar note, we will soon start programs for children who need dialysis. These programs obviously create a different set of challenges but are also needed as these children would otherwise have no chance at doing sports at all.
For both the above I am planning to have non-handicapped and healthy children involved. In a society that regrads illness as a taboo I think that it will be imperative to start teaching ALL the children that the handicapped and those who are not well are just as part of the society as everyone else is.
As for the forthcoming seminar in November, I will try my best to attend, or will ask one of my colleagues to do so.
Thank you for you comments and interest in our work,
regards
Hani
Dear Hani,
We both thoroughly enjoyed reading about your impressive program. Thanks for submitting it to the competition. Your program is amazing and seems to truly make a difference. We are encouraged by your strong commitment, good understanding and discussion of your target audience’s needs, and sound financial strategy.
We think your application could be even stronger as well as clearer if your outcomes were presented through a logic model. If you are interested, we just recently posted a general piece on the contest criteria – innovation, scale, and impact – that might be helpful to you. (see http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/729#comment-2686.)
In addition, we didn’t see any discussion of an outcome study of your program. We think – given your financial resources – that this could really help you “roadtest” your theory of change and ultimately help you improve your program. If you have one, we’d love to see it. In addition, to make your entry even stronger, we’d also be interested in seeing a few more “success stories” about transformed clients.
If you have specific questions on this posting, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Paul Bloom
Senior Research Scholar of Social Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
Suzanne Steffens
CASE Scholar
MBA Student, Class of 2008
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
Duke University's Fuqua School of Business
Dear Suzanne and Paul,
When I started the first sets of programs in November of 2006 they were for 400 girls and boys. My intention and hope was to add 200-300 children every year and grow slowly in a methodical, clinical and scientific way that would have afforded me the luxury of an outcome study. However, the rapid success, both in the fund-raising and the expansion of the programs put such issues on the back-burner. That does not mean however that we do not monitor and supervise our programs in the right manner, but it does mean that the ways we monitor our outcome tend to be a bit rudimentary: through feed-back from the centres, the parents and the children themselves. And there is another way we guage our impact and success: in a country that lives under occupation and in the absence of a "real" democracy and therefore absence of serious freedom of expression regarding politics, corruption and the economy, the press tends to let itself loose in areas where there are no "untouchables". Articles and op-ed columns written about PACES are always positive, and the last one referred to us as " The Candle in the Darkness of the Night" in Palestine.
On the local community side we get our feed-back in a yet more crude form if I may: Ramallah has now become one of our biggest sources of funds and it tells me that Palestinian men and women who have their "ears to the ground" see the societal impact of our programs and are very eager to support them.
Our "success stories" are daily and "nameless": everytime we get a boy off the streets and into our programs, and everytime we get a girl out of her parents' house and into our activities we have added value to their day and life.
Having said all the above, I am very open to developing new and better ways and would very much appreciate any guideance and suggestions from you.
Warm regards
Hani
Hi Hani,
I saw your comment on the "nameless" success stories and wanted to share a few thoughts - this is a topic we have discussed a lot at Nike because there is a demand among many donors for "scientific" evaluation providing outcomes linked to objectives, etc. etc. but what is so interesting is that so many of the positive "outcomes" are unintended (credit for this observation to Rolf Schwery - see below) at the planning stage. This is where I think the academic frameworks may fall down a bit.
We work with an evaluator, Rolf Schwery, who has done a lot of work on "most significant change" approach to evaluation and who uses creative evaluation techniques which in some ways are more relevant to Sport which is so immediate and the benefits are visible - seeing truly is believing in this case. Rolf is now working with us and CARE and Mercy Corps to develop a curriculum for "youth in emergencies" which is designed to use sport to build resiliency and normalcy. It might be interesting for you to connect with him. Feel free to use my name (he is based in Switzerland but has done work in places as diverse as Bam, Iran and Columbia): rolf@schwery.ch
Also, there is another entry by an organization that we work with (Insight - see link below) and they use participatory video techniques as an evaluation tool, along with empowerment communications. Might be interesting for you to connect with them - we love them! http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/2811
Best of luck in the finals - I hope you are mobilizing your networks for the voting period!!!
Ziba
Hi Ziba,
Thank you for your feedback. I will get in touch with Rolf as soon as possible and with "Insight" soon too. I really apprecdiate your advice.
Hani
Hani,
do you have any plans on getting together kids from Palestine and Israel, like in a soccer competition? Or am I being too idealistic here?
- Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
Jasper,
I wondered how long it would take before I was asked that question.
Since I founded PACES last year I have successfully kept it away from any involvement in politics. I have walked away from several "internal" situations in Palestine where politics would have played part in our progrms, and I dont mean on the Palestinian macro level, but on the very micro level within small communities. This is now one very strong "selling-point" for PACES and I want to keep as such.
On the Palestinian-Israeli issue politics and conflict become more complicated, and one has to tread even more carefully. Therefore, regardless of my personal thoughts, or those of fellow trustees and donors, PACES must not take a political stand that is not reflective of the feelings and aspiartions of its constituents. And those feeling are so acute among Palestinians now that taking PACES further above the political fray is not only wise, but very neccessary in my opinion.
Furthermore, our innovation is creating sanctuaries for the children to feel happy, safe and productive within, and to detract from that in any way would be wrong at this stage. The children in our programs need stability and a healthy envirnoment and to introduce an element that might result in an internal conflict for a child might take us many "paces" backward at this stage.
Warm regards
Hani
Have you seen the "Fitness and Dance: Sports for Beautiful Change" entry submitted by Abdelfattah Abusrour? Abdelfattah is also working on sports for social change in Palestine. Here is the link to his entry http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/2033 and here is his email: aabusrour@gmail.com. We hope that the two of you will connect!
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
Hi Dana,
We are already have [connected] and we hope to meet during my next trip to Palestine. In the meantime my colleagues will meet with him to exchange ideas.
Hani
Hi again Hani,
So here is my question for you: it seems the world over that reluctant parents are willing to let their girls play the sports that are associated with their gender (and its all contextual, but nonetheless interesting to me that it is rarely football!). I know your primary focus is not on gender, but I will ask your opinion nonetheless! We have found that there is a greater impact on affecting change in gender dynamics when the sport played by girls is precisely the one society is the one not traditionally associated with girls. On the other hand, I think there are also a lot of benefits to girls playing sports (especially team sports) from an empowerment perspective which is a bit less about challenging societal norms. What are your thoughts on this? I notice that you perservere with pursuing the football option for girls by using the captain of the Palestinian national team.
Thanks so much,
Ziba
Hi Ziba,
I absolutley agree with you, and that is precisely why I "put my foot down" and refused to give in when parents offered to allow their daughters to join our basketball program as opposed to football. Football is not regarded as a socially acceptable game for girls to play..yet (PACES will do its past to change that). However, in some cases, and as I mentioned previously, even getting girls to play basketball was a challange.
I must add here that we chose basketball and football for a variety of reasons: We wanted team sports to allow the children to develop social skills and interact with one another in a healthy and productive envirnoment where the most skillful of the children and the least [skillfull] could be on the same team and in the same group. This was critical to my thinking in teaching children social skills, team-work and work-ethics. Furthermore, we are morally obligated to maximize the impact of each dollar that we raise and to that end having a team of two coaches per 25 children is more economically effective than trying to nurture swimming or tennis talents.
Warm regards
Hani
Hi Hani,
I was so excited to see your entry. I lived in Palestine some years ago - in Ramallah - and played basketball at the Sarriyet Ramallah with the girls' team there. It was an incredible opportunity and I learned first hand the particular impact that this program had on girls in a setting where freedom is limited by both the occupation and societal expectations of appropriate behavior for girls. I am really interested to know more about the arguments you used to persuade parents to release their girls to play - this is such a common problem all over the world, that I think others would benefit from your insights.
On another note, there are two projects that have been posted on this competition that you may want to look at - one is a sports project serving girls in Bethlehem and a second is Kigali Women's Footballers which addresses trauma through sport. It is inevitable that many of the young people living in the West Bank, Gaza and probably many of the refugee camps across the Arab world have experienced emotional trauma - the founder of the Rwandan program has done quite a bit of work on how sport can be used to address trauma, and its effectiveness as a diagnostic tool of emotional disruption as well. I enourage you to check out their projects.
btw, great title-very catchy
Best of luck with your initiative. I will definitely follow your progress and if I travel to Palestine again, would love to visit your projects.
All the best,
Ziba
Hi Ziba,
As I wrote in my entry we engaged in "house to house begging" in order to persuade the parents to allow their daughters to join our programs. It was easier to get parents to agree to basketball than to football (part of the social taboo against girls playing the game) and in some instances we had to agree to hold the practice sessions for the girls indoor, which isnt always easy to do. Needless to say, the girls adorn the head-scarves and wear long-sleeved shirts and always cover their legs, but at least they attend religiously (no pun intended). What helped was our reputation for seriousness and more so the fact that most house visits were done by one of our full-time colleagues who is also the captain of the Palestine Woman's National football team. Her charisma and persistance paid off. Of note here is that we only encountered this problem in Jenin, Tulkarem and Hebron.
Small world: the major sponsors of your former club in Ramallah are also one of my main partners in PACES and have just built an indoor basketball arena at the club. Smaller world still: the other entry from Palestine was one of several potential locations we had ear-marked three weeks ago as a potential venue for our programs for next year. We will now wait till this competition is over before making contact lest we create any impression of collusion
As for the Kigali initiative, I agree that we could learn from their experiences. However, as I mentioned in my entry we have forged several relationships with NGOs who have similar experiences with refugees and we are tapping on that for guidance and help.
I hope that you will soon visit Palestine again. It would be a pleasure to show you our programs.
Warm regards,
Hani
Two significant features stand out in your entry, Hani--the financial stability that PACES has been able to achieve in less than a full year of existence and the absence of ego on your part. (As testimony to this, I can't remember any other entrant who declined to provide a personal biography to accompany the entry.)
In addition, your goals of instilling a sense of personal hygiene and avoidance of militancy among Palestinian youth are deserving, and I suspect that your emphasis on gender equity among Palestianian boys and girls has not been eagerly accepted either by some families in Palestine or by everyone in the Palestinian diaspora community in the UK.
You note that you'd like to take two-four teams of youth to Europe this year. Approximately how many young people would that involve, and which country(ies) would you like them to visit? Italy again, or elsewhere?
Steve
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your kind words, and constructive comments. However, I must say that our emphasis on gender equity was well-received within the community in the UK and elsewhere. The only caveat being in very conservative areas in Palestine where we had to engage in "house to house begging". My colleagues went house to house in Hebron pleading with parents to allow their daughters to partake in our programs. It was a tough task but in the end we got our way.
As for the teams this coming summer we hope to take two teams to the mini basketball tournament in Itlay and two more teams to the UK for a football tour.
warm regards
Hani