Beyond Sport Winners!

We are delighted to announce that this week Standard Chartered were awarded the Beyond Sport award for Corporate of the Year!

The Beyond Sport Summit brought together the best sport-led social innovators, with influential global leaders, to address sport's role in driving positive social change.

The Summit culminated on Wednesday night, when a series of presenters, including five-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe, five-time ice skating world champion Michelle Kwan and Olympic legend Bob Beamon, announced that Standard Chartered took top spot, beating over 300 other organisations. Winning this award highlights the continuing success of Goal and signals that we have been recognised on a global scale for our work.

Nick Keller, the Founder of Beyond Sport, said:

"These projects change lives and communities to an astonishing level. It is a privilege to meet, highlight and support the amazing leaders who drive them, and recognise the very best work in this hugely important sector".

The Beyond Sport Summit is here!

We're very excited for the Beyond Sport Summit, held in London, where Standard Chartered has been shortlisted for the ‘Corporate of the year' award for Goal, selected out of over 300 entrees!

The Summit is held over the next three days from 23rd to 26th July and is designed to celebrate, encourage and drive forward sport-led social change. It involves networking opportunities, panels, roundtables, workshops and site visits to sports programmes around London. It will also be a chance to showcase sports projects around the world that, like Goal, aim to inspire and create positive social change.

Speakers include the former Prime Minister of Great Britain Tony Blair, Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, and gold medal holding Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe.

Winning the award would mean global recognition, exclusive access to partnerships and media opportunities for Goal… so keep all fingers crossed!

Meet Charity, from Zambia

"My name is Charity M. A. Hachijika. I was born on 17 March 1997 and I am the seventh born in a family of nine. I live with both of my parents in the capital city of Zambia and I doing my grade nine at Libala Basic School.

I really enjoy playing football and traditional sports. Before Goal, it was difficult for me to communicate openly and tell my friends that I loved football because football in my society is known to be a sport for boys only. But that changed when Goal came to my school. It has helped me to develop my inner ability in sports and encouraged me to open up to my pals. I got encouraged to express myself. One of the topics we had recently was "Knowing Yourself" and this topic has transformed my life. I have also learnt to interact with different people despite their backgrounds. 

Goal has helped me to be open whenever I am facing a challenge or going through hardships in any area of my life. I don't regret ever becoming a part of the Goal programme."

Standard Chartered launched Goal in Zambia in December 2011, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and EduSports. There are many more girls like Charity, to whom the Goal programme is making a difference. We have 800 girls currently enrolled in the programme, which is expected to reach 2,000 this year, and we look forward to hearing from more of the girls very soon!

Goal Delhi- celebrates World Environment Day

The Goal Delhi staff, four employees from Standard Chartered Bank Delhi and 80 Goal participants took part in a cleanliness drive at the Goal site of Jaitpur on the occasion of World Environment Day.

The drive started off with a brief session conducted by Mr Vivek from Standard Chartered where he spoke about the impotence of hygiene and cleanliness. He highlighted the harmful effects of plastic bags and explained about disposal of garbage. Vivek also emphasized the role of trees in keeping our environment healthy and how each of us can plant a tree and look after it. The session also addressed the issue of clean drinking water.

After the discussion, the entire group picked up cleaning equipment: shovels, rakes, brooms and buckets of water and cleaned the school premises, netball ground and 10 classrooms of the school! This cleaning drive resulted in the disposal of 11 bags of rubbish!

This laborious effort of teamwork ended with participants promising that they would not use plastic bags anymore and work towards a clean and healthy environment.

Goal Partner Summit

Last week Standard Chartered Employees met with their Goal Partners around the world, in Zambia. The Summit took place over three days and was a great opportunity for everyone to share best practice and discuss future plans for Goal. The Head of Sustainability and Regional Corporate Affairs, Mark Devadason, attended with the Head of Corporate Affairs for Africa, along with representatives from Women Win, Coaches Across Continents, Right to Play, Naz Foundation, Youth Empowerment Foundation and of course the host country NGO, Edusport.

We were also lucky enough to see the Goal programme in action as we visited Kamala High School. We were shown a snap shot of the girls being taught the Be Yourself module which was followed by the sport session. Everyone took part in either Netball, Basketball or Volleyball and had a great time discussing the programme with the girls.

Julie Wallace, Head of Community Investment and Sustainability Strategy said; "It was amazing to be able to see the Goal programme on the ground and hear all the girls' aspirations. It was truly inspiring."

 One of the partcipants, Abigail, is an aspiring journalist and is going to send us a story to post on the Blog, so watch this space for the next Jane Austin!

Senator Lundy visits Goal Delhi

This month the Goal Delhi site of Jaitpur had a visit from the Australian Minister for Sport, Senator Kate Lundy. On 1st May, after giving Senator Lundy a traditional welcome, 80 Goal girls demonstrated some Self- defence techniques to the minister followed by a netball match.

Senator Lundy said “The Australian Government is very supportive of engagement through sport. Both Australia and India share a great love for sport, which can be a great platform for further strengthening the bilateral ties.”

Her presence was an inspiration to all those who are a part of the programme and the Goal girls thoroughly enjoyed interacting and playing with the Senator, who's team won 12-6!

We've made the Beyond Sport shortlist!

We're so excited to be shortlisted for the 2012 Beyond Sport awards!  Winner announced end of July... fingers crossed!

Their Summit's going to be in London this year, just before the Olympics kicks off.

It'll " be the place where the sport, development, and business industries come together to network, learn, and be inspired"- Beyond Sport