If you walked onto our dusty pitch in Kajiado County on a Saturday morning, you would not see a classroom. Instead, you would see goats, sheep and cows and hear cowbells ring in the air. You would also see about 60 boys of different ages, chasing a ball, shouting, screaming at the top of their lungs, laughing, and competing with a ferocity that makes you step back. It is a battle cry that we, at Lifesong Kenya, are used to every Saturday during our sport-based mentorship for boys.
You might wonder: Where is the program?
The Lifesong Kenya’s sport-based mentorship for boys program is hiding right inside the game.
And that is exactly the point.
I am learning a lot as a member of Lifesong Kenya’s sport-based mentorship for boys program. I never used to think that cooking and preparing meals in the kitchen was something that a Maasai boy like me would be doing.
– Musa, Lifesong SWB FC Player
For boys who have been used to looking at preparing meals and being in the kitchen as a reserve for women and girls, Lifesong Kenya’s sport-based mentorship is a safe space to introduce gender equality. As a result, the football pitch becomes a classroom where no adults talk at them. It turns into a place where they get to be themselves first.
How Lifesong Kenya is Using Sport-based Mentorship
At Lifesong Kenya, the football field becomes a classroom where we use sport-based mentorship to teach boys about treating women and girls with dignity, respect and honor. By showing them that a man can cook and prepare meals in the kitchen, our male mentors model positive masculinity that we want the boys to emulate.
Watch a video where Hawi James Ouma, our Executive Director has to say about Positive Masculinity here.
Our sport-based mentorship has become an entry point not because football is universally loved, but because it creates instant equality. On the football pitch, a boy’s academic falures does not matter. The wear and tear on his tattered shoes does not matter. What matters is whether the boys is able to learn team work. What matters is how he passes the ball, shows up for his teammate and gets back up when he falls.
That is where trust is built. And trust is the only currency that buys you access to a boy’s interior world.
Sport-based Mentorship Three-Phase Session
Every Saturday, our sport-based mentorship program follows a rhythm that we have intentionally designed:
Phase 1: Physical Engagement
Our physical activity entails training the boys football drills, small-sided games and conditioned play. The main aim is not to produce elite athletes. The goal is to produce sweat, laughter and creating anunbreakeable bond through playing football. We watch for leadership that emerges organically, for boys who support others and for the ones who shut down.
Phase 2: Reflective Learning
During phase two of our sport-based mentorship we gather in a circle — still in our kits, still breathing hard. This is when we introduce the life skill of the week. This includes effective communication, desicion making, team work, emotional intelligence, amongst other topics. Since their bodies are tired from running and playing, their defenses are lower. This makes it easier for the concepts we are taking them through to land differently.
Phase 3: Goal-Setting
Each boy identifies one personal goal for the week ahead. The personal goal has to be something that has nothing to do with playing football. Example of non football goal can be:-
“I will apologize to my brother.”
“I will ask my teacher for help.”
During this session, we use Co-Active Coaching questions to help the boys to find their own answers. Unlike traditional classrooms, there are no lectures and there is no preaching.
Phase 4: Reading Books
Since our sport-based mentorship aims at promoting reading, we also engage in reading books as a group. Each boy gets to read a sentence or two then passes the book to the next boy. When one makes a mistake, everyone is free to laugh, cheer them on or part their back in encouragement.
Why Our Sport-based Mentorship Works
To cap it all, we gather for a simmering cup of tea, when it is cold and slices of bread. There is no time that our boys have ever had enough of this. As a result, it is their favourite part of the sport-based mentorship. It all starts with some of them volunteering to prepare tea at a nearby homestead, bringing it to the field and making sure everyone gets a fair share.
Traditional methods of teaching often lead with information that learners need to know and how they should behave. On the football pitch, we lead with experience, intution and dancing in the moment. We build our experience around what has been felt, what it means and how each boy can use it.
A boy who learns teamwork by passing to someone he does not like retains that lesson longer than a boy who reads about teamwork on a pamphlet. The one who learns emotional intelligence by managing his frustration after conceding a goal owns that insight. It is not a borrowed experienced, but one that is earned by dancing in the moment.
I never used to want to pass the ball to others because I thought being a great player is about dribbling the ball all over the field. Playing for Lifesong SWB FC is teaching about sharing and caring about other players. I am learning that football is a team sport that involves 11 players and the ones waiting on the substitute’s bench.
– Jonna, Lifesong SWB FC player
The Key Takeaway
When you design sport-based mentorship programs for young people — or lead teams, or build products — ask yourself: Am I starting with trust and co-creating as I go along, or am I starting with the content?
At Lifesong Kenya, we are learning that content without trust is noise. We are learning that trust without structure is wasted potential. We have built our program to start with football, then, everything else follows. As our founder, Hawi James Ouma often likes saying when the results are clicking together, “That is pure niceness!”
Would You Like to Get Involved?
Like all great things that leave a long lasting impact, our sport-based mentroship for boys needs your support. You can support us by becoming a volunteer through our Omprakash profile. Please check our volunteer opportunities and if you don’t find something that suits you, you can always customized a role that fits best. We look forward to seeing you soon!
