https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/educafoot-program-links-football...
AKA is the acronym for association Kenskoazell Afrika (in the Breton language) and which means African Solidarity Association. Created in 2018, the association aims to educate children through sports in West African countries. It is supported by its sponsor Stéphane Guivarc'h, the 90s world football champion who played alongside Zinédine Zidane and Didier Deschamps among others.
Actions in favor of children's education happen 3 ways:
- Football, basketball, judo and karate sports equipment is collected and shipped to Africa to give the items a second life
- Construction and renovation of sports infrastructure (multi-sport field, volleyball court, basketball court, multi-purpose room, etc.)
- Development of programs (DIANGSPORT-EDUCAFOOT) in partnership with Ivorian and Senegalese national education
Focus on the Educafoot program
The establishment of the Educafoot program came as the result of an observation: schools in Senegal and Ivory Coast do not have football fields and no sports equipment (balls, jerseys, nets.) to follow the education program. This problem spurred the launch of the EDUCAFOOT program, which was designed to meet several sporting and educational objectives with the help of a sports expert foundation.
This program was submitted to the Senegalese and Ivorian national education authorities, and received very positive feedback, affirming their desire to integrate the program into the school system. Five pilot schools are currently benefiting from this project before being extended to other educational establishments.
Schools that join the program benefit from material support. In fact, AKA equips each school with goals and nets, balls and jerseys, shorts and socks and a screen print with the name of the school on each jersey. The goals are made on site by ironworkers and the sports equipment is also purchased on site.
EDUCAFOOT is a program around sport and particularly football which uses a toolbox to help children grow and become citizens of tomorrow.
Added to this is an inter-school tournament during the school year in primary schools (CE1-CE2-CM1-CM2), according to the following format:
- 3 tests: math, French (traditional dictation), EPS football
- A test is worth 3 points
- The team that wins the match is the one that earns the most points.
- 100% mixed team, as many girls as boys
- Refereeing by children 100% mixed
- A grand finale
An environmental awareness component is also being developed, notably with the creation of nets made from plastic waste.
Specific objectives
The objectives of the program are to help children grow up and become citizens of tomorrow while working on the notions of gender equality, access to sport, environmental education but also on values sport, the taste for effort, surpassing oneself, living together, respect for the rules, respect for opponents. Make young people feel good in their heads and feel good in their bodies.
The deployment is focused around 15 schools/year in addition to those that are already equipped. Today more than 100,000 children are affected by the program.
To achieve the objectives, activities are put in place using a toolbox. In this toolbox, different elements are defined: diversity, composition of teams in the different events, refereeing by girls and boys to develop leadership and decision-making, environmental education through the dissemination of a film followed by an exchange and the making of a net from plastic waste, cleaning the school before each meeting, educational tests in French and mathematics, co-captaincy.
