Speaking to Global Sustainable Sport, Founder and Team Leader Pius Isabirye and Project Assistant Carolina Lozano Nureña explained how listening to students transformed what had been a traditional classroom-based sustainability programme into an engaging initiative that is now attracting interest far beyond the eight schools involved in its pilot season.

A Different Way to Learn

Comrades To Youth Africa was originally established to empower young people through environmental education and life skills. But by 2023, the organisation realised something important.

The content was valuable, but the method of delivery was not capturing students’ imagination.

As Isabirye recalls:

“One of the students gave us feedback that our work was really good, but it was more of a formal classroom. They asked why we couldn’t make it more interactive.”

Rather than dismissing the suggestion, the team surveyed additional schools and discovered the same message repeatedly.

Young people wanted to learn—but they wanted to learn differently.

“They needed a playful way of learning about life skills, leadership and the environment,” said Isabirye. “When we spoke to the District Education Office they bought into the idea immediately because it was something new and it was something students themselves were asking for.”

Football emerged as the obvious solution.

Affordable, universally understood and already deeply embedded within local communities, it became the foundation upon which Play4Change was built.

Football With Purpose

The first Earth League season ran between March and May 2026, bringing together eight primary schools, more than 250 students, 27 matches and over 5,000 community members. Yet the football itself was only part of the story.

Every match was accompanied by learning sessions covering leadership, teamwork, environmental stewardship and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Carolina Lozano Nureña says the programme was deliberately designed around two objectives.

“We asked the children what would make their experience at school better and how we could add value to their learning,” she explained.

“So we wanted to make school more engaging through football while also helping them learn about the SDGs and environmental awareness. That combination was what we most wanted to achieve.”

The response exceeded expectations.

More Than a Pilot

For many organisations, pilot programmes simply test logistics.

For Play4Change, the pilot became proof that the concept could fundamentally change how schools engage young people.

“We are really happy because it was meant to show us what could happen if we scaled the programme,” said Isabirye.

“The schools told us they didn’t want the tournament to end. They wanted it to continue because it was keeping students engaged in school through all the interactions taking place.”

Perhaps most encouragingly, teachers are already beginning to see the programme as their own rather than something delivered by an external organisation.

“They are asking for more coaching skills and more training,” Isabirye explained. “It shows the programme is moving towards community ownership because they are thinking beyond us and about how they can continue it themselves.”

That shift from delivery to ownership may ultimately prove one of the project’s greatest achievements.

Every Goal Leaves a Legacy

One of the initiative’s most distinctive innovations is Goals That Grow, which links sporting achievement directly to environmental action.

Every goal scored generates a commitment to plant three trees—one for the player, one for the school and one planted by the organisation itself within the wider community.

Season One produced 55 goals, creating a commitment to plant 165 trees across Mayuge District.

Importantly, the programme goes beyond symbolic commitments.

Each participating student is recorded, parents are contacted, volunteers visit planting sites and the trees continue to be monitored after distribution.

“If you want to manage the trees, don’t take them because of excitement,” Isabirye explained. “Take them because you know you are committed to planting them.”

“Our volunteers then follow up with parents, visit homes and monitor where the trees have been planted so we know they are actually in the ground.”

In an era where environmental initiatives are often criticised for lacking long-term accountability, this commitment to monitoring is a significant strength.

Bringing Children Back to School

Perhaps the most compelling evolution in the project’s thinking is that Play4Change is no longer viewed solely as an environmental education programme.

It is becoming a school participation programme.

“The narrative we now want to explore is that this programme is actually bringing kids back to school,” said Lozano Nureña.

Isabirye believes football can provide an important incentive for children who might otherwise disengage from education.

“There are a lot of students who have talent but are not coming to school,” he said.

“We want schools to encourage scholarships for those students because sometimes the only thing that can bring them into education is sport.”

Rather than seeing football as a distraction from education, Play4Change positions it as the gateway through which education becomes more relevant, enjoyable and accessible.

Scaling With Inclusion

Following the success of the pilot, ambitions are already growing.

Season Two aims to double participation from eight to sixteen schools while expanding educational activities, strengthening monitoring and evaluation and increasing environmental action.

A major priority will be increasing girls’ participation.

“It requires additional funding because we need specialist equipment and support,” explained Lozano Nureña.

“But long term we want to scale every aspect of the programme—to more schools, more girls, different sports and different activities.”

The longer-term ambition extends well beyond Mayuge District.

“Five years from now,” said Lozano Nureña, “we would love to expand throughout Uganda, maybe even into other countries, and not only through sport but other creative activities that meet every child’s interests and needs.”

A Model Worth Watching

Like many grassroots initiatives, Play4Change faces familiar challenges.

Funding remains the biggest obstacle, alongside securing endorsements that can unlock wider partnerships and national recognition.

Yet what makes the Earth League stand out is not simply its creativity but its willingness to begin by listening.

The programme was not imposed on young people; it was co-created with them. Football became the platform because students chose it. Environmental education became meaningful because it was connected to something they loved. Community ownership emerged because teachers, parents and local leaders were invited into the process from the outset.

At a time when many organisations are searching for new ways to engage young people with sustainability, Play4Change offers a powerful reminder that lasting impact often begins with a simple conversation.

Sometimes, the most effective innovation is not inventing something entirely new—but asking young people what they need, and having the courage to build it with them.