Start date: Oct 2017
End date: Dec 2026
Funding: £107,544
Beneficiaries: Around 525 children and young people U18 annually, 16% female
In the ‘Villas’ of Buenos Aires, life is a daily battle against poverty, hunger, and violence. For children growing up here, gang activity, limited education, and unemployment create a cycle of despair that can feel impossible to break. But at the heart of these shantytowns stands Virreyes Rugby Club, a safe haven that offers young people and their families the chance to dream of a better future.
Start date: Jan 2024
End date: N/A
Funding: £254,591
Beneficiaries: Around 4,500 children and young people U18, 48% female
TackleLondon connects young people in under-resourced London boroughs with their communities and improves their mental wellbeing, providing access to opportunity through sports mentoring, friendship and personal development, delivered through structured, trusted relationships with coaches.
Start date: Dec 2019
End date: Dec 2027
Funding: £127,848
Beneficiaries: Around 800 children and young people U18 annually, 63% female
The Kampuchea Balopp Initiative uses sport as a vehicle for social inclusion and education. The initiative supports underprivileged and/or disabled children as well as promoting emphasis on gender equality by providing access to sport for girls, which was traditionally discouraged. Young people are enabled to escape their difficult daily lives and equipped with essential human qualities and skills to contribute to their development.
Start date: Feb 2025
End date: Feb 2027
Funding: US$31,519
Beneficiaries: Around 480 children and young people U18 annually, 50% female
In the heart of Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia, a groundbreaking initiative is transforming education for local children. A classroom has been converted into an interactive Language Learning Lab, designed to provide young learners with the tools they need to build essential language skills and expand their opportunities for the future.
Start date: Apr 2018
End date: Dec 2026
Funding: £93,251
Beneficiaries: Around 18,700 young people aged 12+ annually, 38% female
Using rugby as a vehicle for engagement, SKRUM create safe and fun environments to educate children on HIV/AIDS and its cultural causes in Eswatini, the worst affected country in the world. It tackles gender and healthcare inequalities and taboos to empower the children and create a healthier future.
Start date: Nov 2016
End date: Mar 2029
Funding: £204,624
Beneficiaries: Around 3,000 children and young people U18 annually, 40% female
In some of the most deprived communities and slums, education was seen as an unaffordable luxury. Our partners at Khelo Rugby are changing that, utilising rugby to teach crucial life skills, provide sessions and empower the children to seek out opportunities and enrol in higher education.
Start date: Sept 2022
End date: Jun 2026
Funding: £104,508
Beneficiaries: Around 150 children aged 10-12 annually, 50% female, 50:50 Jewish:Arab
In Haifa, a city of cultural diversity, sport is proving to be a powerful tool for unity. Our Tag Rugby for Coexistence Programme brings together Jewish and Arab children, fostering friendships, teamwork, and mutual respect through the game of rugby. The initiative addresses key challenges, ensuring deep and lasting impact. By engaging pupils at a young age and promoting structured collaboration between schools, we are breaking down social barriers and creating a generation that values coexistence.
Start date: Apr 2018
End date: Dec 2028
Funding: £105,546
Beneficiaries: Around 300 children and young people U18 annually, 42% female
Children from Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, receive access to rugby, nutrition and learning opportunities. With no running water, little electricity and open sewers running throughout the community, Kibera can be a tough place to grow up.
Start date: Jan 2026
End date: N/A
Funding: £146,314
Beneficiaries: Est. 1,640 children and young people U18 annually, 50% female
Designed as a mobile digital learning and innovation lab, the Atlas Digi-AI Bus delivers essential digital skills directly to schools and underserved communities across Nairobi. The initiative is led by our local partner, Kings Rugby Development Academy (KRDA), with the support of The Atlas Foundation.
Start date: Jan 2025
End date: Dec 2027
Funding: £38,912
Beneficiaries: Around 2,200 children and young people U18 annually, 50% female
Sport programmes delivered through school environments enable community coaches to connect with children trapped in extreme poverty. Talented and hard-working children are encouraged to join the outside school LSO Pathways Development Programme. They receive coaching, healthy meals, clean water, school support and a chance to achieve scholarships to schools their parents could never afford.
Start date: Nov 2016
End date: Dec 2027
Funding: £108,932
Beneficiaries: Around 3,000 children and young people U18 annually, 48% female
Bhubesi Pride Foundation (BPF) works with disadvantaged children in rural Lilongwe, Malawi to give children a chance to overcome the severe challenges they face and uplift themselves and their community. At their sports and community centre, BPF promotes their PRIDE values of Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Enjoyment to the children, empowering them to work hard to rise to the economic, social, and health challenges that are sadly a part of daily life for children in Malawi.
Start date: Jan 2021
End date: Dec 2026
Funding: £107,599
Beneficiaries: Around 66,500 children and young people annually, 65% female
Gauteng Women’s Rugby Institute provide safe accommodation, food and hygiene products for young female rugby players escaping from gender based violence and disadvantage. The young women here are given the chance to study and train, developing their opportunities to reach their potential and prepare for a career whilst also providing sports coaching and mentorship to young girls and boys in local schools.
Start date: Jan 2022
End date: N/A
Funding: £179,919
Beneficiaries: Around 1,300 children and young people U16 annually, 47% female
The Atlas Digibus is a game changer for the children in Langa, Cape Town. Providing over 1300 students with vital education in maths, English, STEM, and digital literacy skills. The Atlas Digibus helps the children overcome the challenges present in an under-resourced education system, significantly improving assessment results, reducing dropout rates, and giving teachers new and engaging ways to teach.
Start date: Oct 2024
End date: Jul 2027
Funding: £16,439
Beneficiaries: Around 80 children and young people U18 annually, 48% female
Lanna Rugby Club works with disadvantaged young people who are mostly children of migrant workers and offers care and education to disadvantaged children and youth in marginalised groups facing socio-economic difficulties in the north of Thailand.
Start date: May 2019
End date: Dec 2027
Funding: £133,352
Beneficiaries: Around 1,600 young people aged 11-18 annually, 31% female
We are using rugby to tackle the problems in the neighbouring communities of Ocean View and Masiphumlelele High Schools. Through the Atlas rugby programme, children are provided with mentors and sessions on key issues of health, drugs, and crime, which plague their communities and often destroy any hope for a better future.
Start date: Aug 2025
End date: Aug 2026
Funding: ZAR 200,000
Beneficiaries: Around 50 deaf children and young people U18 annually, 50% female
In partnership with the Dominican Deaf School and Villager RFC, The Atlas Foundation South Africa is using the transformative power of rugby to empower young deaf boys and girls, helping them build confidence, skills, and friendships that transcend barriers.
Start date: May 2019
End date: April 2023
Funding: £18,000
Beneficiaries: 717 children and young people, 44% female
Team Talk is a project based in Laikipia County, that uses sport to break down social and gender barriers to enable community change, seeking to directly improve the lives of girls to enable them to be aspirational and play a fuller role in the family and the wider community. The boys develop a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by women in the community and with that a greater level of respect and support.
Funding awarded from the Atlas Foundation impacted on 717 children and young people across 8 schools, and contributed to:
• Increased school attendance: from 19% to 64% of girls reaching their final year
• Improvement in final school grades
• Reduction in early marriages and young pregnancies
• Reduction in malnutrition rates
• Improved self esteem and confidence in girls and boys
Start date: Jul 2016
End date: Dec 2019
Funding: £10,002
Beneficiaries: 1,400 children and young people, 40% female
Les Enfants de L’Ovale trains teachers to be rugby coaches, and rugby coaches to be teachers. Through their training programme, hundreds of teachers work across Africa, reaching thousands of children. Their educational programme provides education through the sport of Rugby in addition to general education such as academic support, learning new subjects and enrichment activities as well as providing health benefits including nutrition for children who grow up in challenging environments.
Funding from The Atlas Foundation for this programme in Agadir, Morocco contributed to impacting 1,400 children between ages 9 to 15 (60:40 boys:girls) across 14 schools.
Start date: Nov 2019
End date: Nov 2022
Funding: £10,500
Beneficiaries: 1,400 children and young people, 40% female
Les Enfants de L’Ovale trains teachers to be rugby coaches, and rugby coaches to be teachers. Through their training programme, hundreds of teachers work across Africa, reaching thousands of children. Their educational programme provides education through the sport of Rugby in addition to general education such as academic support, learning new subjects and enrichment activities as well as providing health benefits including nutrition for children who grow up in challenging environments.
Funding from The Atlas Foundation for this programme in Lazaina, Madagascar contributed to impacting 1,400 children between ages 9 to 15 (60:40 boys:girls) across 20 schools.
Date: Apr 2019
Funding: EUR 50,000
Beneficiaries: 150 children and young people annually
Funding from The Atlas Foundation for this project in Abidjan, Ivory Coast contributed to the build costs for constructing the ‘House of Les Enfants de L’Ovale’, a sports and education facility supporting children and young people locally, including from Yobou-Lambert, a settlement area for Nigerian migrants who were displaced during and after the Nigerian Civil war. Today the area suffers from insufficient housing and highly precarious living conditions. Once complete, The House of Les Enfants de L’Ovale will give the young people living here a safe space to escape their daily hardships.