Rexona Breaks Limits Through the Power of Movement in Brazil
Since April 2021, Rexona (also known as Sure, Degree or Shield depending on your location) has partnered with Beyond Sport on the innovative Breaking Limits Programme to change young people’s lives through the transformative power of movement. Today, we’re highlighting the impact in Brazil - one of the three key regions using the programme’s digital training series. There, the training series is helping local NGOs increase the confidence in Brazilian youth to move more.
According to an Edelman Intelligence 2020 report, 80% of Brazilians said that movement is important to them, 39% of them, however, say the fear of failure stops them from having a more active lifestyle. The Breaking Limits digital training series tackles the lack of confidence people experience when approaching physical activity and equips coaches and community leaders with the tools to increase inclusion, motivate and inspire.
In Brazil, we’ve partnered with leading sport for development organizations to provide young people with access to movement-based programmes. Today, learn more about NGO partners, Street Child United Brazil, ACER Brazil, Bola pra Frente and Fight for Peace (Luta pela Paz) who collectively feel that the series has increased confidence among their coaches and mentors, as well as in their youth and especially girl participants.
Street Child United Brazil serves street-connected children using sport and movement to support their education and increase their self-esteem. CEO, Adam Reid, shared that getting youth moving in Brazil was key to saving lives.
“Working in one of the most violent communities in the city of Rio de Janeiro, positive activities like our football programme can mean the difference for a child in picking up a ball or a gun. Also, we know that movement builds confidence and efficacy, and this is what Breaking Limits is all about.”
The Breaking Limits Programme helped the organization launch its first girls' tournament. The most valued aspect of the training series was the confidence gained by the organization’s coaches and the feeling of being part of something global that is making a difference in communities.
The Goals, Voices, Choices module in the training series was beneficial in providing a clear path in terms of positive impact for every girl participant, noted Adam. For an organization that excels in keeping its programs inclusive to females, they are now creating activities where young women’s voices are heard and have opportunities to gain confidence in their own positive choices.
“Through our work, we know that girls have secondary access to sport and safe play. We know that often there is bullying of girls and we know that most social programs are created for and by boys. It was a breath of fresh air for us to participate in this course with so many excellent organizations from around the world and to feel that we are not alone,” said Adam.
For ACER Brasil, being part of the Breaking Limits Programme was a recognition of their collective work over the years and a chance to reach a much wider audience. Acer has supported young people since 1993 by promoting safe social environments for physical activity. With inclusion being a highly valued attribute to the organization, they found that their young participants enjoyed being part of a global project and something bigger than themselves.
In the community of São Paulo where they operate, the reality is very different for young men and women. Institutional Relations Manager, Jonathan Hannay, shared that the local culture values young men and as a result they have good access to movement. However, there remains the risk of security, where families consider that they’ve finished bringing up boys by age seven and therefore they’re free to roam day and night at high risk of violence and murder.
On the other hand, there is a negative response to young women participating in sports and physical activity, which remains a huge barrier in the region. “Girls are seen to need protection, and thus families are reluctant to let girls go places other than school. The series helped to open up more ideas about how to break down these social values and gave lots of different ways that young women can become more active.”
The Breaking Limits training series modules which specifically focused on creating gender equality and inclusivity for all young people were particularly popular with ACER Brasil, who found that this aspect strengthened its female coaches in their role and gave them the confidence to include more young women in their programme.
Four-time world soccer champion, Jorge de Amorim Campos, better known as Jorginho, founded the Bola pra Frente Institute in 2000 in the North of Rio de Janeiro to promote education through sport for kids aged 6 to 17. For the organization, access to the Breaking Limits Programme and its training series was valuable in a year where physical activity was restricted due to the pandemic.
Last year, Bola pra Frente focused on its female participants after reflections from the Breaking Limits Training Series and decided to hold an event about equality for young women in sport. “It was a very successful event for us,” said Assistant Director, Vanessa Campos. “Our female students organized and held this event to promote equality. We have been seeing the culture of girls in sports changing in our environment.”
In addition, the organization introduced a female-only sports class with the idea of creating a space where young women can talk about their vulnerabilities and difficulties and discuss sports and exercising with their peers.
The Breaking Limits training series has also helped Bola pra Frente understand the differences in sports access when working with underserved communities. “We have realized that socially vulnerable communities lack space and venues that offer movement and development. Our community counts on our NGO and a few other public spaces but that’s not the reality for all communities.”
Due to a recent renovation, Bola pra Frente has been forced to work in smaller spaces. However, Vanessa says that “the Breaking Limits Programme has helped us use our current small spaces with creativity, providing more options for movement and fun for our participants.”
Fight for Peace (Luta pela Paz)
Since 2020, Fight for Peace has inspired young people to reach their full potential, whilst promoting peace in communities. They operate in London and Brazil, with partners worldwide. However, their coaches in Brazil rarely have the opportunity to receive training. The Breaking Limits Programme and training series filled this gap and allowed them to incorporate more coach exchanges in their work.
Senior Global Partnerships Manager, Patrick Ashcroft, shared that the training series helped make sessions more accessible to those who are less engaged in physical activity, and this particularly helped in the boxing and martial arts environment, which can seem intimidating at first for young people.
“One highlight discussed by coaches in the group viewing sessions was the advice to sometimes ‘celebrate mistakes as if they were a goal’, which they [coaches] felt was a great phrase to redefine how we think about grassroots.”
Despite the culture in Maré, Brazil where women are expected to prioritize household duties above physical activity, the training has provided Fight For Peace with more ideas on how to further improve engagement of young women and girls. In addition, Patrick said: “It has also helped us reflect on whether we are doing enough to support young people with disabilities (which we have started recently).”
Our full list of NGO partners in Brazil:
- ACE Projects
- ACER Brasil
- Bola pra Frente Institute
- Fight for Peace – Luta pela Paz
- Fundação Gol de Letra
- Futebol Social
- Instituto Esporte e Educação
- Instituto Fazer Acontecer
- Instituto Rodrigo Mendes
- love.fútbol
- Special Olympics Brazil
- Street Child United Brazil
- REMS
- UmRio
Training modules for the Rexona Breaking Limits Program in partnership with Beyond Sport are now available for FREE in Spanish, Portuguese and English. Sign up to access the training series here:
CLICK HERE for UK and Global English Speaking
CLICK HERE for USA
CLICK HERE for Mexico (Spanish Speaking)
CLICK HERE for Brazil (Portuguese Speaking)