Former volleyball players make a difference through IOC Young Leaders programme

Former volleyball players Sara Moamen and Jessie Niles are making a difference through positive social projects as part of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Young Leaders programme.

Moamen, who played as a setter for famous Egyptian club Al Ahly for five seasons, is part of the IOC Young Leaders cohort of 2023-2026 while Niles, a former Canada national team libero, is part of the 2021-2024 cohort.

The IOC Young Leaders programme, launched in 2016, empowers talents to leverage the power of sport to make a positive difference in their communities. A total of 25 young leaders from all over the world are selected every two years to join the four-year programme.

With the support of seed-funding from the IOC and a network of mentors, these inspiring young people have so far delivered over 140 initiatives reaching over 30,000 individual participants.

Moamen and Niles are enthusiastic about expanding on this success by making a positive impact on their communities through their projects. Niles, a data analytics professional working in sports business, is passionate about creatively using technology and the athlete voice to promote health, lifelong learning and creating a global community through her project called Ready in Five.

IOC Young Leader Jessie Niles, a former Canada national team player, has achieved early success with her Ready in Five project. (Photo credits: COURTESY)

Ready in Five is an online platform where businesses and schools can book high-performance athletes into online meetings and classes to lead five minutes of movement to bring energy, wellness and a sense of connection into their virtual worlds.

“This idea came about during lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being in lockdown really affected my energy levels as a sportsperson so I started thinking of a solution to it. I thought of the power of athletes to get people moving and help them be more active and connected.

“This programme came at the right time in my entrepreneurship journey. Entrepreneurship can be lonely and having a team to walk me through this journey has been very important. Through the Young Leaders programme, I’ve learned how to run a social business and to make it sustainable. Getting the seed money from IOC has also been helpful,” said Niles.

Since launching in October 2022, Jessie has put together a team of eight athletes drawn from Canada and Germany and they have reached over 300 people so far.

“The beauty of the programme is that it’s four years long so it gives you enough time to think through your project and how to make it sustainable. We took almost one year in the development phase, six months to build the idea and another six months to test it.

“We have a theme for every session that is consistent with the Olympic values. We have received good feedback from teachers saying that the sessions have provided kids with an opportunity to learn something different from athletes. Ready in Five also exposes the kids to role models which is a big inspiration for them.

“At first people from the corporate world were a bit hesitant but with time they have embraced it. It’s been fulfilling seeing them enjoy it with more energy and getting more connected. The corporate world has also noted that the sessions help employees to be more engaged since what we do is quite different from what they are used to,” revealed Niles.

IOC Young Leader Jessie Niles (centre) in action during the Volleyball Challenger Cup

Having started brightly, Jessie is hopeful that they can only get better from here.

“We are aiming at 200 to 300 sessions a month which will enable us to reach 2,000 participants. We also want to grow our roster of athletes to around 100 which will ensure we have a global reach.

“We have a social-giving model to our business such that for every session a corporate pays for, we donate one to a school. As the business grows, the athletes will get to benefit more since they get paid for their time,” said Niles.

Meanwhile, Moamen is just a few months into the programme but she is already excited about what the future holds. A Global Sport Management master’s degree holder who specialised in sports marketing, the 28-year-old strongly advocates for peace and recognises the potential of sport as a powerful tool to foster and promote peace on a global scale. She is particularly passionate about how sport can support refugees.

“When the civil war started in Syria, I kept on thinking about how the victims were feeling having been displaced from their homes, families and country. I always wanted to do something to help refugees feel included but I didn’t know how to do it.

“When I was studying in Germany in 2019, they had this programme where refugees could meet twice a week and play a wide range of sports. They really used to enjoy it and I though why not create something similar back home in Egypt,” Moamen told FIVB.com.

IOC Young Leader Sara Moamen speaks during a conference dubbed ‘I can Lead’ involving 100 African refugee students where she was invited as a guest speaker (Photo credits: COURTESY)

Regardless of their backgrounds, Moamen wants all refugees to feel included back in her home country, and she is committed to using volleyball as a powerful tool for inclusion and integration.

“I am mainly concentrating on refugees in Egypt. I want to use the sport that I love the most (volleyball) and some life skills sessions in order to assist the refugees’ kids in Egypt to feel included and overcome what they have experienced due to displacement.

“All refugee kids will have an equal opportunity to join this project. It does not matter where they are from, their ethnicity, their religion or beliefs. All that matters is that they are human and they deserve to lead a normal life. I am happy with the support I have received from IOC so far. The sessions with sports for development experts have really been helpful. The goal is to make the world a better place for everyone.”