In a global philanthropy landscape still obsessed with visibility, metrics and medals, Saad Kassis‑Mohamed has chosen a different frontier: the quiet, unglamorous foundations that actually keep people in the game. As an Indian entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, he has built his reputation around sustainable development, ethical finance and humanitarian innovation, backing everything from solar microgrids in rural East Africa to ethical gemstone training hubs and youth enterprise platforms. Now, through the WeCare Foundation, which he chairs, Kassis‑Mohamed is turning that same systems-first logic toward women’s para football in Nairobi.
Instead of funding stadium spotlights or trophy ceremonies, his latest initiative focuses on the thin margin where participation either survives or collapses: safe training surfaces, basic injury prevention, reliable transport, psychosocial support and coaching time that does not disappear when money is tight. In this interview with Capital, he explains why he believes the true test of impact is not a podium moment but whether women with disabilities can show up, train safely and stay in the game long enough to unlock their potential. Excerpts;
Capital: What first drew you personally into supporting women’s para football in Nairobi, and why did you choose this programme rather than a more high profile project?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: What drew me in was how clearly the athletes and coaches could explain the real reasons women drop out, and how those reasons were practical and solvable. The programme itself stood out because it is partner led, close to the athletes, and focused on consistency rather than one off moments. I chose it because the work is real week to week and because improving everyday conditions is what keeps women playing, not visibility.
Capital: You have framed this support as much a health intervention as a sports one. How did that framing emerge for you, and what does it change in practice?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: The health framing emerged because the biggest barriers were not sporting ability, they were injury risk, pain, recovery gaps, and unsafe or inconsistent training conditions. When you see it as a health and participation issue, you fund continuity. In practice that shifts support toward injury prevention, safer training environments, stable coaching time and the basic access conditions that keep women able to train.
Capital: Many philanthropists prefer visible, medal focused projects. Why did you decide to fund “boring basics” like safer training conditions, transport and recovery support instead?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: Because those “basics” are what decide whether an athlete stays in the game long enough to reach her potential. Medals are the outcome, but the inputs are safety, access and stability. If an athlete misses training because transport fails, equipment breaks or an injury is unmanaged, progress stops. Funding the basics protects health and keeps participation stable.
Capital: In your view, what is the single most important barrier that pushes women with disabilities out of sport before they reach their potential?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: Instability. When participation depends on unpredictable factors, access, safety, equipment, pain management, women lose weeks and then lose momentum. That’s what turns short interruptions into long absences and eventually dropouts.
Capital: The package in Nairobi targets the “thin margin” where a missed week becomes a missed month and then a dropout. How will you measure whether this intervention is actually keeping women on the pitch longer?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: We focus on a few clear indicators: attendance consistency, retention across training cycles, and time lost to preventable setbacks. We also rely on coach feedback and athlete feedback because it often reveals what the numbers miss. The point is to see whether women are training more reliably and missing fewer weeks for reasons that are actually addressable.
Capital: You have said this is “not a one off gesture, it is about stability week after week”. What does long term commitment look like for WeCare Foundation?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: Long term commitment looks like thinking in seasons rather than news cycles. It means supporting the programme through multiple cycles, reviewing what is working, and adjusting based on what athletes and coaches say they need. The goal is to strengthen the programme’s ability to run consistently, not to create dependency on our funding.
Capital: What have you heard directly from athletes or coaches that has most challenged your assumptions about disability sport?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: How precisely they can identify the real barriers when you listen. Too often solutions are designed from the outside. The athletes and coaches are experts in what makes training unsafe, what makes attendance unreliable, and what support is genuinely useful. That clarity challenged any temptation to over-design and reinforced the need for partner-led decisions.
Capital: Women with disabilities often face layered exclusion: gender bias, disability stigma, and poverty. How does your foundation try to avoid reinforcing those power imbalances when it intervenes?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: We try to keep decision making with the local partner closest to athletes and avoid making participation conditional on publicity. We keep consent and privacy central to any storytelling and focus on supporting systems rather than controlling people. Respect shows up in who decides priorities and how support is delivered, not in slogans.
Capital: Safeguarding and psychosocial support are built into this programme. What specific risks were you trying to address, and how frank are athletes in telling you when systems fail them?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: The risks include harassment, exploitation, stigma and the pressure to stay silent when something is wrong. We want athletes to have clear routes to raise concerns and to feel safer doing so. I don’t expect every athlete to be fully frank with a funder, but the system around them should make it safe to speak up, and that’s what we aim to support through the partner’s safeguarding approach.
Capital: Do you think disability sport is still too dependent on “inspirational” narratives? How do you balance storytelling with respecting athletes’ everyday realities?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: Yes, it often is. I understand why those stories travel, but they can flatten people into symbols and ignore the practical reality of staying healthy and showing up. The balance is to tell the truth about what makes participation possible and to treat athletes as people with agency, routines and constraints, not as a storyline.
Capital: WeCare works in Sudan, Central Africa and other underserved regions. How does the Nairobi project fit into your broader strategy for health, education and economic inclusion?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: It fits because consistent participation in sport can unlock wider inclusion, confidence, community, leadership opportunities and stronger pathways into education and work. Disability sport is an underused lever for inclusion, but only if the health and access foundations are solid.
Capital: How do you decide when to exit a programme so that it is locally owned, not indefinitely dependent on your foundation’s money?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: We look at whether the programme is stable, whether systems are stronger, and whether local pathways for support, sponsorship, federation links, institutional relationships are developing. Exiting responsibly means avoiding a cliff edge and making sure capability and ownership remain local.
Capital: Philanthropy often escapes the scrutiny that governments and NGOs face. How do you hold yourself and WeCare accountable to the women on that pitch, not just to your advisory board?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: We keep accountability practical: clarity on what was funded, what it is intended to change, and feedback loops with the partner and athletes. The most important test is whether women experience greater stability, safety and respect because of the support.
Capital: What are the key metrics you follow beyond participation numbers and injury rates—do you look at schooling, income, or leadership roles for these athletes over time?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: We pay attention to what coaches and partners observe in terms of wellbeing, confidence and leadership, but we are careful not to turn monitoring into surveillance or collect sensitive personal data unnecessarily. The core question is whether the programme is becoming a safer, more stable platform for women to grow.
Capital: If, five years from now, this programme has not reduced injuries or dropouts, what will you be prepared to change about your model?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: We would change it. That might mean shifting resources to the true bottleneck, bringing in different expertise, changing delivery methods or ending what isn’t working. The right response to weak results is to adjust to reality, not defend a model.
Capital: Do you see this Nairobi model as something that could be replicated quickly in other African cities, or does it need to be built very context specifically each time?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: The principles are replicable, protect health, stabilise access, keep coaching consistent, embed safeguarding but the design must be adapted locally. Barriers vary by city and infrastructure, so it can’t be copy-pasted.
Capital: What is your message to African governments and football federations that celebrate disability sport on podium days but underfund the “in between” work of transport, equipment and recovery?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: The “in between” work is the work. Celebration is easy, but participation depends on funding accessibility, safe training environments, transport, equipment and recovery support. If you want talent pipelines, you have to fund the infrastructure that makes week-to-week training possible.
Capital: Finally, on a personal level, what would success look like to you if you return to this pitch in ten years’ time and watch these women—or the next generation—train?
Saad Kassis-Mohamed: Success would be a programme that is stronger and locally anchored, producing not only athletes but mentors and leaders. If the next generation enters the sport with fewer avoidable barriers and with safety and dignity built into the system, that’s success.
