The MYSA Leadership Awards Project tries to help our best youth leaders to stay in school for another year. Our organization and the hard working mothers of our youth put a lot of emphasis on education. For example, in MYSA the youth earn points for their performance in different sports and community development activities. Each year the best young leaders by age and gender in our 16 zones then receive MYSA Leadership Awards which are paid directly to their school. Each award is about Ksh 10,000 ($150) which largely covers their school fees. This year over 300 young leaders received awards.

Since 1987 the Mathare youth have pioneered the crucial linkages between sport, environmental improvement and community development which are now recognized worldwide and reflected in the policies of countries like the Netherlands and Norway and global agencies such as the International Olympic Committee and UNEP.
The project was launched in 2000 in order to improve the quality of sports and leadership skills in all our MYSA zones. Close to one thousand youth have benefited through the training.

The department is concerned with developing leadership and coaching and refereeing skills among the youth of Mathare. A lot of out-of-Mathare youth in Nairobi have also benefited from the high quality training offered by MYSA
The focus of this process will be to create and facilitate organized groups of young people to sustain the concept of sports for development.
Volunteer coaches and referees will through the MYSA leadership process accumulate points which will enable them to qualify for bursaries/scholarships to pursue other professional courses through which they can serve the community.
Among the activities proposed under the partnership are:

These activities will also sustain the schools programme, which has been in existence since1999. The main objective of the programme was to improve the physical education course and facilities in selected primary and secondary schools. So far 268 teachers have been trained and 10,423 children benefited.
The Mathare youth created the Sports and Leadership Academy to consolidate and share their many years of practical experience in motivating and training young athletes to become better players, coaches, referees and leaders in their schools and community.
MYSA Academy courses aim to help young athletes:

As shown in the attached programme, the introductory course will focus on:

Those completing the introductory course will receive a participation certificate confirming the topics and skills they covered. Those who effectively apply their new knowledge and skills in their schools and community in the months following the course will receive a special performance certificate.