When Lord Seb Coe’s charity International Inspiration wanted to showcase how it is changing lives throughout the world, it asked us to produce a film. We told the story of Mercy Anne from Kenya, who was thrown out from her family home after becoming pregnant. With the support of International Inspiration and the East Africa Cup, Mercy Anne became a football coach and a mentor to other young people in trouble.
Supporting sport for development: the East Africa Cup
Training Director Nick Raistrick has a strong interest in sport for development, and has been involved with the East Africa Cup in Moshi, Tanzania, for more than a decade. He delivered training with young people at the event as a volunteer, and acted as its director of media development when the EAC team won “Best Sports Event for Peace” award at the Peace and Sport awards in Monaco in 2011.
He also produced a film of the event, which was broadcast on the UK’s Community Channel.
You can read his account of the first ten years of the event and its role in assisting development at: https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/publication/east-africa-cup-first-ten-years
Nick has also developed online training material for BBC Media Action on sport for development and in reporting sport; and produced packages which were broadcast on BBC World Service radio on sport for development issues raised at the event.
Nick was also part of a BBC delegation attended the 2007 ‘Next Step’ conference in Windhoek, Namibia, where he worked on participatory video sessions.