As part of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, World Rugby and ChildFund Rugby are celebrating ten years of their joint initiative PassIt Back, a program that has transformed lives through rugby. Since its launch in 2015, this initiative has benefited over 80,000 young people in 36 countries, combining sport with life skills education, leadership, and gender equity.

With a clear vision from its beginnings in rural villages in northern Laos, Pass It Back was created to use rugby as a tool for social change. The strategic partnership with World Rugby has enabled the program to expand its global impact, mobilizing over £10 million and creating safe and inclusive spaces where children and young people can learn, play, and lead.

A Model of Inclusion, Leadership, and Resilience

The alliance between World Rugby and ChildFund Rugby has redefined the role of sport in social transformation. As a global social impact partner, ChildFund has established a model that promotes inclusion at its core: more than half of the coaches and players are women and girls, and Pass It Back sessions not only teach rugby but also instill values, confidence, and independence. Stories like Mai’s—a deaf player in Vietnam—or Hatice’s in Turkey, who found in rugby a way to rebuild her self-esteem after an earthquake, are just a few examples of the initiative’s transformative power.

Looking ahead, Pass It Back envisions itself as an even broader and more structural movement. With recent expansions into Kenya and Madagascar, and with the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 as a key platform, the program is advancing Grassroots to Global, a new phase focused on strengthening female leadership, building international networks, and inspiring sustained investment in community sport. As Margaret Sheehan, CEO of ChildFund Australia, stated, this past decade has proven that rugby can be much more than a game—it can be a tool to change the world.