'Give them a ball, Give them a chance, They'll take it!'
Since 2013, the Kampuchea Balopp (KB) Initiative has been operating in Cambodia, using 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. Furthermore, KB allows young people to escape their difficult daily lives whilst teaching them essential human qualities and skills to contribute to their development. This project is funded by Atlas Asia.
Development Goals
Education
Gender Equality
Social Inclusion
Situation
Cambodia remains a poor country with young people under the age of 30 representing 2/3 of the population. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds, including children with disabilities face a particularly tough childhood. The main challenge facing families is economic; some simply cannot access affordable fruits, vegetables, and grains due to a lack of income. In 2025, 40% of the young people Kampuchea Balopp work with live in extreme poverty (less than the equivalent of $1.25 per person per household per day).
Therefore, this is why our partner Kampuchea Balopp is on a mission to assist the development of underprivileged and disabled children through rugby. With Atlas’ support, KB aims to develop essential qualities including respect, tolerance, responsibility, spirit, and confidence to participate in their development, as well as an opportunity for children to escape the difficulties of daily life.
Solution
The work of Kampuchea Balopp is social change in action, driven by play, joy, and community.
In particular, KB has found that building equality and breaking down barriers has had a great impact on the females in the KB program; 60% of the children under the programme are girls. In the past, girls in Cambodia were not given access to sport, and were encouraged to follow more traditional pursuits. KB saw that there was a need to empower girls and help them to achieve their full potential. Therefore, the promotion of gender equality is at the forefront of Kampuchea Balopp’s work.
Kampuchea Balopp also provides motor skills development for disabled children and works with local organisations to develop programmes for the deaf, blind and handicapped children. In 2024, 200 of the children had a disability. For most of these children, it was the first time they had played sport and the regular physical activity has had an incredibly positive impact on their emotional and physical well-being. KB also holds a Disability Olympiad to raise awareness for the benefits of disabled children playing sport.
Additionally, every three months, Kampuchea Balopp regroups around 3-400 children for a ‘KB day’. These involve a morning of sporting activities where all the children are mixed together, forging friendships and the opportunity to meet peers from different areas and social stratum. The most recent KB day was on June 15th, 2025 which took place at BKK High School in Phnom Penh. From U9 to U18, 295 children participated, 36 matches, 60% girls and 25 volunteers!
Lastly, it is important to mention that KB also builds awareness of the dangers of illegal substances or addiction, delivering sessions on these issues.
Testimonials
Every day, you use the concepts instilled by rugby to control your energy, your emotions, and respect everyone around you, both in your professional and personal life. Everyone who comes from the world of rugby shares the same lifestyle.
KB gives a chance to the kids under the KB sports programme to have bigger tournaments overseas!
I’m very proud to become an ambassador for this association because for me it represents values, as I said earlier (values of solidarity and friendship) and really allows young people to integrate.
- Offer weekly access to sport for underprivileged children.
- Use rugby as a vehicle for social inclusion and education.
- Build long-term life skills for long-term development
- Employ 4 full-time Khmer sports educators.
- Provide nutritious food and water.
- Supply sports kit.
Impact
Education
Education and inclusion are at the heart of Kampuchea’s programme. In 2024, 300 children who were out of education joined the programme with 50% already re-enrolled with KB’s support. Furthermore, 162,000 days of schooling had been shared between the programmes 2500 regular children across the summer of 2024.
Gender Equality
Kampuchea Balopp offers weekly access to sport for more than 900 underprivileged children. With Atlas’ support, the programme has seen incredible progress in participation of girls, with over 60% of the children benefitting from the programme being female.
Social Inclusion
KB provides children with the opportunity to forge friendships, build lifelong skills and compete with other NGO partnership groups where schools from Bangkok and Singapore travel to compete in their ‘KB day’ tournament which occurs every 3 months!
HELP MORE UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN ACCESS SAFE INCLUSIVE SPACES
Stories from Kampuchea Balopp
Rithy’s Story
Rithy from Kampuchea Balopp shares how rugby has given him friendship and taught him the value of teamwork.