The BSA Scholarship Program

País: Zambia

Organization: Breakthrough Sports Academy

Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2004

Main barrier addressed: Young men’s missing voices and input leads to disconnection and failed policies
Main insight addressed: Award responsibility with support

Describe your program or new idea in one sentence. - The BSA Scholarship program is aimed at getting the BSA peer leaders back to school who otherwise cannot afford to pay for their school fees due to their less privileged circumstances.

What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community? - Through this project, BSA works towards getting peer leaders under our programs back to school. We have kids coming from some of the poorest townships of Lusaka. School drop out rate is very high in the communities were BSA works. Currently over 500 young boys participate in our annual activities and programs. Out of this group approximately ¼ of them need support to pay their school fees, ¼ are risk of dropping out from school, ½ are in school. The other major set back is that the majority of BSA’s target group has not completed basic primary education. Through the scholarship program, BSA empowers them even further by giving them a lesson for life. The lesson for life is education. BSA values the importance of education and we encourage our children to concentrate both on sports and school. The vast majority of BSA’s target group is aged from 8 to 19 years.
Sport is used as a medium to attract the young boys and aim to empower them through getting them back to school. Through this program BSA aims to promote their basic right to education. On the other hand participation in sport gives the young people hope besides their less privileged circumstances.

Describe how you organize and carry out your work? - The process begins with
- Identification, this process involves identifying young men under BSA programs but not enrolled in school. The identification process will also consider the one who will potentially drop out of school or are already in school. However, priority is given to the ones who are not in school.
- The prospective candidate has to have exceptional skills in sport or contribute to the growth of BSA. Their involvement can be through coaching; refereeing or volunteering for BSA events.
After this has been established, BSA signs an agreement with the parents and finds a place for the successful boy. BSA has partnerships with some schools who offer us school places for our young men.

What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond? - BSA will continue the search for individuals, organisations and the corporate world to support us in the BSA scholarship program. In 2008, BSA will establish what is called a scholarship fund. Everyone who would like to support BSA in the scholarship program will have their funds transferred to this account. The funds that will accumulate will be used to pay for the school fees for the young men. In 2008 we aim to increase the number of young men to be supported through the scholarship program. BSA will further create profiles of the young men who will be supported on the scholarship program. The profiles will be sent to our partners and supporters of the scholarship program. This will be an effort to make sure that the people who support the scholarship program are well updated on how the young men are progressing. With Education, the young men will have a lesson for life. This innovation is all about having a holistic approach to the development of the young men. They will have an opportunity to develop in their sports skills but at the same time getting an education. BSA has made an agreement with the young sports men, “you do something for BSA, BSA will do something for you”. Through the scholarship program, BSA is paying back to the endless efforts of the young men to change their lives and not only to dream but to believe that the dream can be realised. Through the scholarship program BSA wants to achieve that.

What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea? - This field has not been completed

Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels. - 15 children have been through scholarship program but the major limitation is resources

What impact has your work achieved to date? - As an organization BSA has made the following impact. At international level the young people have been involved in the following projects
1. Gothia Cup Sweden, www.gothiacup.se
2. Premier Soccer Academies training camps www.premiersocceracademies.org
3. Norway Cup Norway; www.norwaycup.no
4. International Conference on sport and Urban Development; www.sportconference.nl
At National level BSA implemented projects which include
1. Mini Africa Cup Project

2. Refugee Camp Project

3. Barclays Cup

4. Environmental Clean up Project

5. German Zambia Friendship Tournament

6. Zambia Street Football Network

The main majority of beneficiaries in all the successes have been the young men aged from 9 to 18 years. Their involvement in all these projects/programs have been
- Trainers of Trainers during courses
- Managing, refereeing and coaching
- Actual organizing of the events and activities
- Some of them have been involved as players
The boys and girls have shown great courage to turn their lives around and contribute to development of their own communities. By paying for their school fees this will act as a reward for their great efforts in contributing not only to their personal development but preparing them for the future as well.

Number of individuals served: The project has reached out to 15 youth. BSA would like to increease this outreach but we can only do so much
Community impact: BSA would like to see a community were young men are empowered with Education and eventually will contribute to the development of their own communities.
Society at large: Education is a lesson for life and we will continue in our quest to create a better society with young men who are educated and contribute to the development of their society. Football will be used a tool to turn this into reality

What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why? - BSA will employ one individual to be in charge of monitoring the progress made by the children in School. This person will monitor and report to the rest of BSA during meeting on the progress made by the children. Monitoring will be done through having meetings with teachers who will be responsible. Checking of results at the end of the school year as well as assistance were the young men face challenges with their school work.

How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication? - BSA does not have a sustainable source of finance for the scholarship program. Over the past years, we have depended mainly on contributions from BSA members; friends of BSA based in Zambia and abroad. The friends of BSA are from Norway, Germany; United Kingdom

Provide information on your current finances and organization: - a. annual budget
b. annual revenue
c. sources of revenue (please provide percentages if known)
d. number of staff (full-time, part-time, and volunteers) Over the years, BSA has been implementing our program through volunteer efforts. We had focused on laying a foundation to develop the project. As the organization grew the need for finance was eminent. As of 2008, the organizations budget is approximately 90 000 US dollars per annum. The budget is split into the following
Administration costs
Office Staff and volunteers
Rentals
Projects
Tournaments and events
Outreach Programs
Equipment

Who are your potential partners and allies? - Currently BSA has relied on contribution from friends and partner but we will continue the search for more allies to come in

Who are your potential investors? - This field has not been completed

What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The origin of the story traces way back as 2004 upon the recognition that the majority the young men under our sports programs were not enrolled in school or were potentially going to drop out of school. As BSA we hard very good young sports men who wanted to make a difference with their lives. In the beginning BSA was just about providing sports opportunities to these young men. As time went on, BSA developed the scholarship program to address other social vices that affected our target group. BSA went on to develop the scholarship program which specifically targeted highly skilled and talented young by assisting them through paying for their school fees. For BSA education was the greatest gift we could give to these young men as it would secure their future. We would like to do more and increase the outreach of the scholarship program. However under the current state of affairs we can only do so much.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - The name Breakthrough Sports Academy www.bsazambia.com nicely embodies an organization whose vision and practices employ football in innovative environment. Although the organization concerns itself with a broad gamut of social issues, the main programs include environmental clean up projects involving football and basketball students. Other works have been in Mayukwayukwa Refugee camps to establish football leagues. BSA is an implementing partner of the Football for Hope movement which is a key strategic alliance between FIFA and Streetfootballworld.

Contact Information:

Malanga Jeff Mposha
Director - Breakthrough Sports Academy
Breakthrough Sports Academy
(Sports organization)

Submitted by: mjaytheone

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