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Right To Play's Mission Lost In Translation by GMC
As part of the ongoing controversy over the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s (VANOC's) decision to keep the humanitarian group Right To Play out of the athlete’s village for the 2010 Olympics, GM Canada has made a generous offer to host some of the children that the charity supports at the Games.
The only problem with that is it’s not remotely what Right To Play does as a organization.
They don’t take children to the Olympics, or Disneyland for that matter, not that there’d be anything wrong with that, but it would do absolutely nothing to address the problems they’re trying to address in the world.
They bring sport and play programs to the most desolate parts of the world, where children have absolutely nothing, including often hope. They train volunteers to set up programs in these places like Rwanda and Sierre Leone and those people train locals to keep those programs going after they leave.
There seems to be a huge lack of understanding of that when you see what GM Canada is offering as an olive branch, although it is a very well-meaning gesture on their part. Perhaps, that lack of understanding is a big part of this problem.
Right To Play does not want to bring kids from Africa and other places to watch bobsleigh; they want to give they something constructive to do and help them build meaningful lives. They believe being in the athletes village, where they’ve been since 1994, has given them a valuable platform to do that.
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