Challenges Realised at CSG

Center for Sports Annual League and Clean Ups

1. Limited sporting equipment’s such as balls, uniforms and sports shoes for the kids while running our league.
2. Fewer participation of the girls as compared to the boys.
3. Grabbing of public spaces by powerful politicians hence limited spaces in the slums of organizing sports activities.
4. The Elnino rains sometimes affect the running of the sports activities specially in times when it rained heavily.
5. Lack of a community notice board where fixtures can be posted hence increase in our printing cost so as to ensure that every community coach gets a copy of the fixtures.
6. Poor playing surface making it hard for the kids to control the ball and bring out their best talent.
7. Few trainings and workshops for coaching, refereeing, and first aid and injury prevention due to limited resources.
8. Few sporting events and basic equipment for youth living with disability.
9. Limited first aid equipment during our community league matches.

Health

1. Lack of comprehensive youth friendly services at local health facilities thus leading to increase in cases of teenage pregnancy.
2. Limited resources to facilitate our health education programs such as distribution of sanitary pads to adolescent school going girls and young women from less privileged background.
3. Lack of public rehabilitation centers to cater for drugs and substance abuse addicts who are willing to quit and receive treatment
4. Myths and misconceptions surrounding the use of various family planning methods and shortage of commodities such as condoms
5. Poor health seeking behaviors among men and boys due to rigid gender norms

Education

1. Limited resources to support as many kids as we would like to support through our academic scholarship program.
2. Mistrust and suspicion between police and youth due to negative police actions such as harassment, bribery, extortion, brutality, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances.
3. Limited resources to offer trainings on employability as well as support placement for youth to gain employable skills that they can depend on for their sustainability.

Environment and Climate Change Awareness

1. Limited community clean up equipment hence reduced collection of tons of garbage.
2. Bureaucracy in government offices while trying to access government managed forests in order to plant more trees.
3. Limited resources to purchase trees for planting hence leading us to developing a tree nursery that takes time before it matures and is ready for planting.
4. The community had limited knowledge on climate change issues and how it affected their livelihoods directly.
5. Delay in transfer of collected garbage to the Nairobi municipal site.

Advocacy and Civic Engagement

1. Lack of clear feedback mechanisms and involvement in the implementation of the proposed development programs.
2. Lack of access to crucial budget documents such as program-based budget (appropriations Act) to enable us to conduct timely and appropriate social auditing.

Other challenges faced in our scope of operation

1. High unemployment rate.
2. Harmful traditional practices such as early marriages.
3. Diminishing opportunities to access to education and health care.
4. Malnutrition and food insecurity.
5. Illiteracy and ignorance.
6. Poor sewage systems.
7. Limited access to clean water.

Indirect benefits to the community

Center for Sports and Growth (CSG) also gives indirect benefits to the community. The families in Mathare:

1. enjoy the life-saving clean ups of the Mathare valley and its environs.
2. are being sensitized about the scourge of HIV/AIDS and how one can protect himself/ herself from the disease. Sensitization is also done to the community on drug abuse, alcoholism, menstrual Hygiene management and crime prevention.
3. also enjoy some benefits that their children acquire good behavior and become role models by being members of CSG. The good behavior means that the children are no longer associating themselves with bad children who are:
4. smoking bhang.
5. sniffing glue.
6. joining prostitution.
7. pick pockets.
8. not going to school on the pretext of lack of school fees
9. General awareness created by CSG about diseases like cholera has saved the Mathare Valley residents from preventable deaths.
10. CSG involves children in productive activities as children play football, they use their time positively and parents feel they are safe.
11. Children get important information on topics that parents do not know, and even those that they know but may not be able to discuss with the children who they feel are too young. Examples of such topics are sexual reproductive health rights.

Lessons learnt

1. To be flexible enough and be able to adjust our programs.
2. Planning well and engage the community more.
3. Make agreements with institutions that we work with in the community such as medical institutions and schools that provide us with space for organizing our sports activities.
4. That sport provides healthy challenges and lessons for kids which help them cope better with life, even in the tough social, psychological and physical conditions in slums and refugee camps.
5. That sport helps keep kids away from drugs and out of trouble and helps them learn lessons in self discipline, teamwork and respect for rules which then helps stay them out of trouble.
6. That is when the kids are playing on the same team, the ethnic and other differences which divide their older siblings and parents become more difficult to sustain and they are less inclined to hate the relatives of the teammates passing the ball to their own kids.
7. That sport provides kids with new and often better role models in the community.
8. That in times of conflict, kids can themselves become the examples and role models in helping
9. reduce ethnic tensions and communal violence.
10. That kids playing together, especially in team sports, are largely blind to the ethnic and other prejudices of their parents.
11. That kids are not born with the ethnic, religious, cultural or other prejudices of their parents.
12. The laws of the game, like the rule of law in society, help promote fair play, justice and peace on and off the field when applied to all equally.

Opportunities to tap into in order to improve on your programs.

1. Make maximum use of our already existing partners and keep expanding our partnerships network both internationally and locally.
2. Increase our engagement with the local administration and government.
3. Explore more funding for youth employability and vocational training for there is more need in the community.