PlayOnside Quarterly Report Q3 2017

Quaterly Report 3. Quarter 2017 OCTOBER 2017

OUR FUTURE IS NOW • WE ARE FOOTBALL • FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

GENDER EQUALITY

SOCIAL INTEGRATION

EMPOWERMENT

Closing the gender gap through football

Bringing the communities together on the football field

Empowering young local leaders, through capacity building programs

Table of content 3

About PlayOnside.......................................

Financial overview third quarter 2017.........4 Activities third quarter 5 Starflower - Football for all........................

6 Capacity Building Program.........................

Rice Project - Collaboration with the

Norwegian football Club Vestkysten 8 Sportsklubb..................................................

Football & Art - A cooperation with 9 Kick-Start Art...............................................

10 Rainy Season Tournament...........................

14 Salaries and Administrative costs...............

Field Improvements....................................

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15 Training and Equipment..............................

15 Medical Costs.............................................

15 Financial Costs...........................................

Our Future is Now.......................................

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About PlayOnside PlayOnside is a small nongovernmental organization based in the Thai border town, Mae Sot on the eastern border towards Burma.

PlayOnside use the power of football to educate and empower Burmese refugees and migrants displaced in Thailand. Burma has experienced one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world with internal conflict contributing to thousands of civilian casualties, forced displacement and resettlement in other countries.

PlayOnside was founded in 2013, and has steadily grown and expanded its reach. Now, every weekend around 700 children from 22 different migrant schools gather to play, learn and compete while making new friends and expanding their network in the process.

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Expenses 3. Quarter 2017 StarFlower Progam Field Improvements

11.800 7.297

Rice Project

72.696

Coaching Training

12.850

Medical Costs

1.745

Salaries and Administrative Costs

151.827

Rainy Season Tournament

195.890

Training and Equipment

47.196

Financial Costs

12.463

Total Expenses 3. Quarter

All numbers are in Thai Baht

513.764

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StarFlower Progam - Football for all!

In February 2017 PlayOnside started a 6 weeks pilot program together with StarFlower Education Center, and the British organization Stepping Stones.

Stepping Stones is providing physiotherapy and medical guidance and follow up of children with different disabilities. Children with disabilities often dont get the same opportunities as healthy children, and the lack the opportunity to participate in physical activities. There is a lo The pilot program was a great success, and we found the budget to continue this program. Every Tuesday sixteen children from the StarFlower Education Center participate in the football program.

Total cost for the Starflower Program in 3. Quarter was 11 800 baht

The differences in physical abilities in among the players requires good preperation from the coach. Activities have to be adapted to their individual levels of abilities, to ensure a sense of achievements.

Naw Laura Htway is the new main coach for the StarFlower team, and she is doing an amzing job empowering and encouraging these children.

Over the nine months we can see a significant improvement of the abilities of the players, and we are very happy to continue this important program in the forseeable future.

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Coaching Training One of the main priorities of PlayOnside is our Capacity Building program. The objective is to give young local leaders who show passion, initiative and interest the opportunity to develop as a football coach.

These courses we develop together with our partners at Premier Football Academy – Bangkok and Internation Football Education. .

The goal is to promote good local role models who can take responsibility and become a coach and a leader for a team.

We put a lot of focus on the social role of the coach. A football coach does more than just teaching the children how to kick the ball.

He or she has to be a team builder, a motivator and an excellent communicator. The coach has to be a person the children can come to with their concerns, and a bridge between the school and the parents. Every child is different and every child has individual need for comfort encouragement and feedback.

For PlayOnside the “soft skills” of the coach are of greater importance than the theoretical football coaching skills.

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In the 3rd quarter, we arranged different to Capacity Building Programs. The first course we did by ourselves, while the second one was a part of the annual Esperanรงa football camp, a joint event with our partners from the Bangkok based football academy called Premier Football Academy (PFA). PFA is a professional football academy focusing on development of talented Thai youth. Their approach differs a bit from ours, as we do not have football skills improvement as our main objective, nevertheless, it was very useful for PlayOnside and our local coaches to get professional feedback on the technical and tactical aspects of coaching football.

28 young local leaders completed the courses, and this is important part of the capacity building and equipping the coaches with the necessary tools to hold quality football trainings. We are looking forward to see these talented youngsters grow as coaches, role models and leaders in the years to come.

Total cost for the Coaching Training was 12 850 baht

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The Rice Project - A Collaboration with Vestkysten Sportsklubb During the last 5 years the Norwegian football club Vestkysten Sportsklubb has supported and financed rice for several schools, dormitories and one orphanage in the outskirts of Mae Sot. Access to enough nutritious food has been a challenge in this area, and as rice is the staple food in the region, and consumed for every meal, it is pivotal for the children education and development, and free school lunch is also an motivational factor for parents to send their children to school.

PlayOnside is responsible for the monthly purchase and delivery of the rice. Every month PlayOnside delivers 30 bags of rice, a total of 1.500 kilo to the Primary Schools Maw Kwee, and Gol La Hay, two dormitories in Noh Bo and Mae Salitt, and to Safe Haven Orphanage in Mae Thawo.

Total cost for the rice project in 3. Quarter was 72 696 baht. This amount includes purchase and transportation of rice.

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Fotball & Art - A Cooperation with Kick-Start Art PlayOnside put a strong emphasis on cooperation with other organization.

These collaborations are not limited to our field of interest, but also crossdisciplinary partnerships with other organization working within the same target group are important.

One organization we have formed a partnership with is Kick-Start Art, (www.kickstartart.org). KSA is small local organization bringing color, paint and creativity to the local migrant communitites in Mae Sot. Before the start of the Rainy Season Tourna,ment, PlayOnside and KSA

started a joint collaboration with the teams participating in the upcoming tournament. By being inspired by different logos from other football teams, the students first interpreted the meanings of the different logos, and then created their own. After all the children had the chance to use their creativity and learning new drawing techniques, they chose one logo to represent their schools football team.

The logos where printed at the team’s uniforms, and the players were very excited to wear them for the Rainy Season Tournament.

During three weeks in July PlayOnside and Kick-Start art held workshops at all of the 22 schools participating the upcoming Rainy Season Tournament. The result of the art workshops were extraordinary, and now the colorful logos, designed by the players are to be found on around 700 different uniforms.

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Rainy Season Tournament The main project of PlayOnside in the 3rd quarter was the Rainy Season Tournament. Last year was the first year of this tournament, with 17 teams from 7 different schools participating.

This year we had 53 teams from 22 different schools – a massive increase, and a sign of the big steps PlayOnside has taken over the last year, and our ever-increasing popularity within the migrant communities.

Growth in numbers is not necessarily a goal in itself, but now the schools are coming to us to request participation

The games at Ah Yone Oh attracted the attention from spectators of all ages.

, a big change from the way it used to be, were we approached the schools to “beg” them to join our program.

With many new teams, that had never played football before, we used the weeks leading up to the tournament to arrange friendly games. This way the players and the coaches get used to the concept, and these games were important for the schools and children to get to know each other, and lowering the competitiveness.

This was a very successful approach, and it had a very good effect on key elements as fair play, tolerance and respect during the Rainy Season Tournament.

Above: The tournament was divided into 5 different categories, three boys categories and two girls categories.

Below: Difficult conditions at Mae Tao Clinic lead to celebration of “Happy Chocolate Day” 1 0

PlayOnside’s main objectives are Gender Equality, Social Inclusion and Empowerment, and all PlayOnside projects focus on at least one of these core objectives.

Equal opportunity to play and equal access to sports regardless of gender is pivotal for us in PlayOnside, and we work hard to promote and facilitate girls’ participation.

The tournament started in the end of July and lasted until the closing ceremony 30th of September. Every weekend more than 700 players participated.

Such a big event is a logistical challenge for a small organization like PlayOnside. In addition, with only two fields at our disposal, and the schools spread over a vast geographical area, the cost of transportation took a major chunk of our budgets. Regardless of challenges during the tournament, we can look back at it now, and conclude it was a highly successful event, and that PlayOnside has matured a lot as an organization. The feedback from the schools, teachers and players have been great, and we will systematically

evaluate the feedback so we can make improvements for future events.

PlayOnside does not put a lot of emphasis on who wins. However, for the schools and players this is important. So our job is to facilitate for social inclusion, and emphasis and promote what we regard as the most important elements of a competition like this. Fair Play, Tolerance, making new friends, showing respect for each other, and of course having a lot of fun along the way.

Our three main objectives of Gender Equality, Social Integration and Empowerment was therefore a focus area throughout the tournament, and we worked 1 1

Social Integration systematically to implement these objectives.

Gender Equality With many new schools now requesting to join the program, PlayOnside can make some requests back to the schools. One of the request is to ask them to create girls teams. By close communication with the teachers and headmasters we encourage them to give the girls the same opportunities as the boys, and we believe we have been able to change the way some of the local communities look at girls’ football.

The Gender Equality objective has been highly successful, and we will continue to empower and promote girls participation in the future.

Mae Sot is a Thai city with a substantial migrant/refugee population.

The city is divided culturally, ethnically, and socioeconomically.

Nevertheless, football is a perfect tool to bring the migrant-host communities together and to tear down the walls hindering social cohesion.

Through different events, we involve the different communities, and giving the children the equal opportunities regardless of background.

Football integration clinics and football festivals that PlayOnside host on a regular basis give the children the plattform to create new friendship and new network with children from different communities or different backgrounds.

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Empowerment Football can be a powerful tool for empowerment, both on a community level and on an individual level.

Football empowers the community; they get a feeling of belonging, and proudness of participating. It empowers the children, as they improve their skills and gain confidence and recognition. For the coaches/teachers it is about giving them the tools to implement the PlayOnside program. Through the PlayOnside Capacity Building Program, young local leaders learn about the “soft� values of football like fair play, respect and tolerance. The Capacity Building Program aims to highlight the role of the coach as a role model and an inspiration for the children. By equipping coaches with different tools, they are capable of implementing these values in practice.

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Salaries and Administrative Costs By the end of the 3rd quarter, we are four full time and four part time employees in PlayOnside. We believe in equality in all aspect of our organization, consequently we all have the same salary, regardless of experience, background and position.

A full time position in PlayOnside is paid 10.000 baht per month while a part time position is paid on a pro rata basis.

PlayOnside also covers expenses for visa extensions, work permits and medical expenses for staff and close family. Other administrative costs include office rent, internet, water, electricity, and transportation.

Total salaries and administration cost in 3rd quarter was 195 890 baht

Salaries, transportation and office expenses take up the majority of the PlayOnside administration costs

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Other Expenses Field Improvements In rainy season our football fields has suffered substantial damage. We bought some truckloads of sand to fix the worst water ponds on the fields.

We also bought new goals at the football field at Ah Yone Oo School.

Total cost for field improvement: 7 297

Training and Equipment Before we have been relying on donations of used balls, bibs cones and general equipment. But as a result of an improved financial situation in PlayOnside we decided to purchase new sets of balls, bibs and uniforms for the upcoming tournament. We acquired 120 new footballs, 100 new bibs and approximately 700 uniforms.

Medical Costs With the responsibility of 800 chilren engaged in physical and competitive activites, accident may occur. This rainy season we had an incident that required medical attention, and one night at the Mae Sot General Hospital.

This was covered by PlayOnside. The total cost was. 1.745 baht

Financial Costs As our income is in general donations in foreign currencies and expenses are in Thai Baht, we are vulnerable for exchange rate fluctuation. Changes in exchange rate, and costs of making international transfers are our major financial costs: Total Financial cost:

Also included in this post is transportation costs and bananas for every player at every training. Over the course of this period, more than 7000 bananas have given to the players after the training as a part of promoting a healthy lifestyle and nutrition.

Total cost training and equipment: 47 196 baht-

Mae Tao Clinic field needed som improvements after the rainy season!

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Our Future is Now

PlayOnside s Life-Skill Curriculum will be implemented in the last Quarter of 2017, and will be a focus area of 2018

Development of Life-Skill Curriculum Over the last year, PlayOnside has grown to become one of the most influential and most important sports development organizations on the Thai/Burma border..

The tournament started in the end of July and lasted until the closing ceremony 30th of September. Every weekend more than 700 players participated.

Such a big event is a logistical challenge for a small organization like PlayOnside. In addition, with only two fields at our disposal, and the schools spread over a vast geographical area, the cost of transportation took a major chunk of our budgets. Regardless of challenges during the tournament,

we can look back at it now, and conclude it was a highly successful event, and that PlayOnside has matured a lot as an organization. The feedback from the schools, teachers and players have been great, and we will systematically evaluate the feedback so we can make improvements for future events.

PlayOnside does not put a lot of emphasis on who wins. However, for the schools and players this is important. Therefore, our job is to facilitate for social inclusion and emphasis and promote what we regard as the most important elements of a competition like this. Fair Play, Tolerance, making new friends, showing respect for each other, and of course having a lot of fun along the way.

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Mobile education for Out-ofSchool children

Therefore, we decided to start a collaborative project with our partners As previously mentioned many migrant in Kick-Start Art, to bring alternative education to these children. children are out of school.

Our pick-up truck functions as a mobile classroom, where the children can use The lack of enrollment is a massive problem, and this is something we would their creativity with the guidance from Kick-Start Art teachers. like to address. The reasons behind Over the years, we have seen the varies, but includes, lack of importance of regularity to our understanding of the importance of program. This is essential to gain the education from the parents, children trust of the local communities we work contributing in incoming-generating with, and to have a long-term impact. activities for the family, or children So far, after a few weeks, the project being kept at home to help with looks great, and we look forward to see domestic duties.

Regardless of reasons behind, we feel it the development of the mobile is important for PlayOnside to reach out education project over the coming weeks and months. to this marginalized group of children.

Pictures from the first day of the mobile education project. The balls and crayons bring smiles to the faces of the around 30 children participating for the first couple of weeks..

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