Grant for NGO to use app to track coaches

DURING his visit to South Africa, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, will announce a grant of e100 000 (R1.58 million) from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for NGO Waves for Change in Cape Town.

Bertrand Walckenaer, the deputy chief executive of AFD and Timothy Robert Conibear, the founder and director of Waves for Change, will sign the grant to support Waves for Change.

The grant will allow this South African NGO that provides mental health support to vulnerable youth through learn-to-surf programmes, to conduct a pilot project aimed at demonstrating the sustainability and social impact of a new activity.

To reach more young people and expand its programmes to remote areas of South Africa, Waves for Change plans to use a mobile application to track the work of independent coaches who are responsible for organising sports activities, beyond surfing, and recruit participants.

Waves for Change employs 50 coaches, often former beneficiaries of the programme.

It has five training clubs in South Africa, all situated in poor areas in the Eastern and Western Cape.

Using the app, coaches will open new sporting programmes, and report on the location, duration and the number of participants each activity engages. Coaches will receive direct payment, cutting out the need to use intermediaries and opening a new way to scale the reach of sport and development programmes.