Youth Development and Sports

Support youth empowerment through sports.

TRHI recognizes sport’s growing contribution to the realization of development and peace through its promotion of tolerance and respect, as well as its contributions to the empowerment of women and young people, individuals and communities, as well as health, education, and social inclusion goals. Learn how TRHI is empowering the youth of Ogun state through sport.

According to the UN, sport is an enabler of sustainable development. Physical education, physical exercise, and sport in general help to develop soft skills and instill values like collaboration, solidarity, and respect, all of which are important in establishing peaceful and cohesive communities. Nevertheless, there is much to be done to promote sports among the youth in Ogun state.

Youth living in poverty and without employment are often faced with the pressure to join gangs which often leads to drugs, alcohol, crime and violence.

TRHI is committed to working with young people and is dedicated to assisting them in cooperating, fully participating in the development of their community, reducing poverty and inequality, and fostering a culture of peace.

We recognize the role that sports programs play in community empowerment and development, as well as their contributions to health, education, and social inclusion goals. To this end, we are implementing a sports program through which young people in Ogun state are receiving training in major types of sports that include football, basketball, tennis, and running.

At TRHI, we have seen firsthand the importance of investing greatly in grass-root football because it proves to be one of the effective measures of crime prevention. For this reason, we created the “Beyond Limits Football Academy” where young indigenous football talents are being trained and prepared for international opportunities.

Many of the young people in Ogun state, continue to express immense interest and passion in football. To this end, we established an indigenous football club in 2010, with the goal of identifying and nurturing homegrown talent from our co-founder, Adekunle Soname’s hometown (“Remo” and surroundings). Since its inception, the club has successfully onboarded and trained over 200 players, with over 20 of them progressing to leading international football clubs such as Al Maria in Spain, AIK Start in Norway, St. Pauli FC in Germany, FC Fremad Amager in Denmark, CD Feirense in Portugal, FC Porto in Portugal, and Inter Milan in Italy.

TRHI always seeks opportunities to partner and collaborate with other organizations with the goal of expanding our reach and attaining our goal of youth empowerment and development. Thus, our co-founder, Adekunle Soname, also serves as the President/Chairman of Clube Deportivo Feirense in Portugal. The team successfully moved from the second to the first division and has remained in the premier league for three consecutive seasons. Adekunle Soname also served as the Marketing Chairman of the Nigerian National Football League from 2010 to 2014, and as the Patron of the Nigerian Para-Table Tennis Club.

At TRHI, we have seen that when young people experience positive interactions through opportunities like sports, it increases their sense of belonging, improves mental health and strengthens community ties. Today, through sport, TRHI is helping to reduce the percentage of young people who are susceptible to exploitation, violence and crime in Ogun state and Nigeria at large.

Our progress:

So far:

• 547 youth have participated in Football.
• 200 in Basketball.
• 50 in Tennis.
• 44 in Running.