Game-changing partnership: ChildFund Rugby, Kenya Rugby, and Menzies Aviation team up to create impact through rugby
27 June 2025
•By linh
NAIROBI, KENYA - [27 JUNE 2025] - An opportunity to grow the impact of rugby has arrived. Pass It Back is making its debut in Kenya, powered by ChildFund Rugby, Kenya Rugby, and Menzies Aviation, the leading service partner to the world’s airports and airlines.
This impactful integrated rugby and life skills initiative will introduce young people to World Rugby’s non-contact T1 Rugby, and equip them with critical life skills - starting with the Playing for Equality learning season.
Expanding Pass It Back’s reach into Kenya
As Pass It Back celebrates 10 years of impact this April, Kenya joins a growing movement that has countries globally, using rugby to promote equality, inclusion, and leadership. By integrating life skills learning with skill development, Pass It Back ensures rugby is not just played - but also used as a tool to inspire and empower young people.
With two seasons currently planned, Kenya Rugby will lead the delivery of Pass It Back, training youth Coaches and engaging more than 250 young players, with a commitment to ensuring more than 50% female participation and leadership across the initiative.
By bringing rugby to new communities, Pass It Back strengthens grassroots engagement and opens new pathways into the sport. Young players, aged 11-16, will participate in structured 90-minute sessions led by youth Coaches aged 16-25, blending rugby skills and life lessons that will stay with them far beyond the pitch.
“Rugby for us has always been more than a sport - it is a platform for growth, leadership, and opportunity," said Thu Le, Global Partnerships and Impact Manager for ChildFund Rugby. "With Pass It Back, more young people will have access to structured, safe, and inclusive learning. As we celebrate a decade of impact, we are excited to partner with Kenya Rugby to support game growth in Kenya from the grassroots up.
Supporting Kenya Rugby
Kenya has a strong rugby tradition. The Kenya men’s team is a key competitor in the global SVNS series, while the Kenya women’s 7s team is making strides toward SVNS qualification in the 2025 Challenger Series.
As Kenya continues to excel on the international stage, Pass It Back supports the foundation of the sport, expanding opportunities for young people to develop their skills, leadership, and engagement in rugby from an early age. By integrating rugby with life skills learning, Pass It Back contributes to a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable rugby ecosystem, ensuring that more young people have access to structured learning and competitive opportunities.
“Pass It Back strengthens the pathway for young players and Coaches, equipping them to grow within the sport while developing the values rugby instils,” said Thomas Odundo, CEO of Kenya Rugby Union. “This is how we build a lasting legacy - by investing in the next generation and ensuring rugby remains a force for community and personal growth. Working with ChildFund Rugby will also help us strengthen and enhance our internal processes, particularly around structures and reporting.”
Kenya Rugby and ChildFund Rugby have already worked together to advance women’s leadership in rugby through the Grassroots to Global 2021 initiative. That partnership continues in 2025, with Kenya Rugby Union hosting a Grassroots to Global forum in late March, convening female leaders from across the country to discuss challenges, share experiences, and build strategies for increasing representation and inclusion in rugby at all levels. One representative will also be selected to represent Kenya at a global forum in England ahead of the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2025.
Looking ahead: the next chapter of impact
With the support of Menzies Aviation, Pass It Back Kenya highlights how partnerships can drive meaningful change through sport. As Pass It Back enters its second decade, Kenya Rugby, ChildFund Rugby, and Menzies Aviation are excited to join forces to make rugby more inclusive, accessible, and transformational than ever before.
John Geddes, Chief Governance & Sustainability Officer & Company Secretary, Menzies Aviation, said: “We’re proud to stand alongside ChildFund Rugby and Kenya Rugby Union, championing this incredible initiative, to empower young people to develop critical life skills while fostering a love for rugby and community. Through collaboration, we are helping to build pathways to brighter futures for young people by ensuring they have access to sport, education and opportunities for leadership. We’re thrilled to support a program that develops both athletic and essential life skills. It’s about building future leaders – on the field, in the classroom, and beyond.”
For media inquiry, please contact:
ChildFund Rugby
Linh Truong, Communications and Content Coordinator
Email: linh@childfundrugby.org
Menzies Aviation
Beki McVicker, PR Manager
via DGA Group
DGA Group, One Fleet Place, London, EC4M 7RA
Tel: +44 (0)7894 991 586
About ChildFund Rugby
ChildFund Rugby partners across the world to use rugby as a powerful tool to drive positive social impact in vulnerable communities. ChildFund Rugby is World Rugby’s Global Social Impact Partner, a multi-year partnership that aims to impact 500,000 young people across the world by 2030.
About Kenya Rugby Union
The Kenya Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby in Kenya, overseeing the sport’s growth from grassroots to elite competition.
About Menzies Aviation
Menzies Aviation is the leading service partner to the world’s airports and airlines, with operations on six continents, at more than 300 airports in 65-plus countries, serving more than 4.8 million flights a year and handling over 2.4 million tonnes of cargo.
Supported by a team of over 50,000 highly trained people, the company provides complex and time-critical ground services, including passenger, lounge and ramp services; air cargo services, including handling, warehousing and wholesale freight forwarding; and fuel services, including fuel farm management and into-plane fuelling.
Menzies Aviation is recognised across the industry for delivering the safest, most secure and sustainable services tailored to customers’ needs and is essential to keeping passengers, aircraft and cargo moving, round the clock, every minute of every day.
Menzies Aviation is headquartered in London, and since its founding in 1833, has become the largest aviation services group in the world by number of countries, airports and aircraft turns.
http://www.menziesaviation.com
