Right To Play
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| Founded | 2000 |
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| Founder | Johann Olav Koss |
| Location | |
| Origins | Olympic Aid |
Key people | Johann Olav Koss, Founder Kevin Frey, CEO Dennis Lepholtz, CFO |
| Website | www.righttoplay.com |
Right To Play is an international development charity headquartered in Toronto, Canada. It promotes the use of play-based 1 learning to improve children's well-being, life skills, and learning outcomes. Its mission statement is to “To protect, educate, and empower children to rise above adversity using the power of play.” 2
Right To Play's work focuses on four outcome areas: quality education, children's health and well-being, gender equality, and child protection, connected to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. 3 Its work focuses on empowering marginalized children with life skills, including refugees, girls, Indigenous youth in Canada, and countries with low scores on the Human Development Index.
Right To Play operates programs in 15 countries, helping approximately 2.3 million children and youth each year. Countries with programs include: Burundi, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Thailand, and Uganda. 4
History[]
Right To Play was founded in 2000 by Olympic speed skater Johann Olav Koss 5 as an expansion of work he was doing with Olympic Aid. Right To Play has been independent of the Olympics since its founding.
Right To Play's first programs were launched in Angola and Côte d'Ivoire in 2001 in partnership with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 6
For its first decade, the organization focused on sport for peace and development before moving into programming focused on learning through play.
Controversy[]
In October 2008, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) announced that Right To Play would be banned from an official role at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.[1] The two committees cited sponsorship conflicts as the reason behind the ban, identifying Right To Play sponsors such as Canon, Scotiabank, and Mitsubishi as competitors to Olympic sponsors Kodak, Royal Bank of Canada, and General Motors.[1] Right To Play had been present in an official role at every Summer and Winter Olympics since 2004, and since 1994 as Olympic Aid.[2]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b The Canadian Press (October 3, 2008). "Charity booted from 2010 Olympic village over sponsorship conflicts". CBC News. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
- ^ The Canadian Press (January 22, 2009). "IOC says Right to Play not welcomed at Olympics". CTV News. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
External links[]
- International organizations based in Canada
- Child-related organizations in Canada
- International educational organizations
- Organizations established in 2000
- Sports charities