DUNK-Developing Unity, Nurturing Knowledge

OUR MISSION

DUNK! - Developing Unity, Nurturing Knowledge - is a youth-led community-based organization providing safe spaces for youth from deprived communities to grow, learn, play and socialize. Through the combination of basketball coaching, after-school tutoring, life skills training and mentoring, and educational scholarships, our young student-athletes are encouraged to take leadership roles in their communities and to excel in and out of the classroom so to maximize their potential and become agents of change. 

DUNK is primarily focused on the Nima and Jamestown communities, two of the financially poorest areas of Accra.  We currently serve approximately 250 boys and girls from ages 10 to 19.  

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Every child has the right to play.

Playing is a leisure that the children of the world share, no matter their age, no matter their history, no matter their race; it is universal. According to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, 'Playing is a language every one of us can speak'. With time, it has even become an obligation of the States. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most approved and recognized international convention, in its article 31, recognizes the right of the child to rest and leisure and to engage in play and recreational activities. It is the responsibility of every State to promote this right.

However, barriers to play are numerous and infringing on the right of every child to engage in play and recreational activities. Among these barriers, we can mention the cultural belief that play is a luxury and a waste of time, as well as the lack of safe and healthy spaces for children to engage in play and recreational activities. In various places, children will roam around, engage in dangerous activities, visit Internet Cafes or gather on empty ground to practice traditional sports such as football and ampe, of course not monitored and not organized. During those activities not being monitored, frequent verbal and physical aggressions are displayed. Hence, though sport provides a safe space for coming together, it can also be an arena for hostilities and selfish displays and exacerbate the exclusion of more vulnerable children.

Ensuring Children's Right to Play in an inclusive, healthy and free of conflict environment is one of our main goals.

OUR OBJECTIVES

• Provide a safe and healthy environment in which youth development is put forward.
• Promote Respect, Self-Esteem, Leadership, Commitment and Teamwork.
• Encourage children to excel in and out the classroom using sports as a motivational tool for success.
• Promote Gender Equality and empowerment of girls