Program Description:

Located in rural Rwanda, ST uses basketball, a regionally young and growing sport, to influence youth and women to live healthier lives.  Using the courts as classrooms, over 2,000 boys, girls, and women gather together to learn more than just the sport of basketball and the importance of physical activity; participants are taught vital health education alongside of sport, marrying the two concepts of physical and mental well-being.   Within the six villages that ST exists, basketball practice runs five days per week, and health classes run two times per week. Each practice is led by coach-educators and are broken up by age and gender. Below is the breakdown of court time by demographic:

• U13 mixed girls’ and boys’ practice

• U18 girls’ practice

• U18 boys’ practice

• 21+ women’s practice

Program Goals:

1. Provide organized and consistent access to sport

2. Teach health education through sport programming

3. Decrease social stigmas of gender inequality in sport

program Outcomes:

Over the past six years ST practices have conducted over 400,000 participation hours (1 person x 1 hour of practice = 1 participation hour) and have held over 8,000 Turikumwe sessions across seven Shooting Touch courts.

Additionally, we have been able to create an equal gender ratio in programming.  In rural Rwanda, it is uncommon to see women and girls playing sports.  Through our programming we have been able to form relationships with communities and create a safe space for women and girls to receive equal access to organized basketball and receive adequate health services alongside their male-counterparts.