During the long summer holidays, our young coaches of the “Trilateral Youth Coaches Exchange” (TYCE) planned, organized and implemented a Holiday Activity using Handball as a tool to address social challenges in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their communities.

The goal for Sustainable Development, which were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The coaches organised tournaments and training sessions to play handball and engage with children and other youth. Below are some insights and experiences reported by the coaches:

TYCE-Coach Brian from Nairobi, Kenya:

My aim was to work on the Sustainable Development Goal 16. The aim of this SDG is to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Our plan was to have first different sessions with various handball games. After these games, we would then facilitate counseling sessions. In these sessions we would discuss different issues affecting us as youths and what we can do to counter these to have a peaceful environment. 

My first project was held on the 7th of January at a school in the Nairobi area. We had fun all day. And the school appreciated us. I learnt much myself as well in the process. The participation was equally awesome. More than 30 kids participated in the sessions at that day. We attended to the kids energetically and the response was magnificent. 
My second project was done in Narok, Ilkek Aare Primary School with my fellow TYCE coach Emily. We were planting and fencing trees to provide a more secure place for the kids. The day was good and we achieved our goal of planting up to 1 000 fenced trees.

TYCE-Coach Movet, Kisumu, Kenya:

My aim of my holiday activity was to provided sporting fun but also educate about teenage pregnancy. Me and my fellow voluntary coach Batoul organised in cooperation with our organisation EmpowerGirlsPlus a holiday activity for over 60 children and young people in Siaya County, near Kisumu, Kenya during the December holidays. It was a great day with lots of fun games. Besides the sports programme, my aim was to raise awareness about the problems of teenage pregnancies. This is a major current challenge in our community. Many teenagers are at risk of becoming pregnant early. Therefore, I aimed to reach out with handball to the girls and speak with them about this topic.

Tyce-Coach Emily, Narok, Kenya:

I organised a holiday activity from the 16th to the 17th of January at the Shamba school. My aim was to address poverty through food insecurity and a healthy diet (SDG number 2). The markets to buy green food are often far. I wanted to help those students at the boarding school to get at least some balanced diet in their meals. Our aim was to build a small school garden where the children can harvest vegetables. On the day, we did different activities, including handball training and lessons on gardening and the advantages of having a small school garden or eating a balanced diet. The gardening day was so amazing. We planted sukuma wiki, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes and onions. We had a lot of fun as a team. The school was so happy and the teachers promised to take care of the seedlings.