Football for Kids

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Switzerland
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/01/2023
Cost of the project €45000
Foundation funding €20000
Project identifier 20220500
Partners PluSport Disabled Sports Switzerland
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment

Context

PluSport is the Swiss federation for disability sport. It has promoted the integration of disabled people through sport for over 60 years. PluSport uses football to promote disability sport among its 12,000 amateur members; 90 regional clubs offer a wide range of sports. PluSport also organises some 100 camps.

Project goals

To use football as a tool for the integration and promotion of young people. All children should be given the opportunity to have fun playing football, make new friends and integrate socially.

Main objectives:

  • Facilitate access to ball games for disabled children
  • Create new ball sport groups for children and teenagers
  • Develop the discipline of rafroball for young wheelchair users
  • Promote and develop sports for disabled people
  • Participate in projects through partnership relations
  • Encourage social integration through sport

Project content

Disability football has great promotional potential. Thanks to the support of the energy group Axpo Holding AG, promotional events are planned in support of the national disability sports day and the ‘PluSport football teams’ project for disabled children and young people. The goal is to create at least 15 youth groups for approximately 220 athletes with eight tournaments a year.

‘From Football to Rafroball’ project

This project introduces a new integrative form of play for wheelchair users called rafroball. This is a ball game developed for both disabled and non-disabled young people that replaces football for wheelchair users.

The objective is to create five youth groups with 50 active athletes and to organise two tournaments and a sports camp each year.

Action plan

  • Integrate children, teenagers and whole groups in PluSport clubs or regional associations of the Swiss Football Association
  • Identify infrastructure needed for training/matches (halls, pitches, changing rooms)
  • Provide training for coaches
  • Organise additional tournaments
  • Organise football camps for children and teenagers
  • Provide compensation for volunteers (coaching staff, referees, athletes)
  • Purchase equipment for training and tournaments

Partners

SCORING GIRLS

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Germany & Iraq
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €435,000
Foundation funding €115,000
Project identifier 20220430
Partners HÁWAR.help
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Conflict victims - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

More people are displaced today than at any time since World War II. In Germany, there are approximately 1.4 million refugees, while in post-conflict Iraq, some 1.2 million inhabitants are internally displaced persons (IDPs). Action is needed to tackle barriers to the integration of refugees and IDPs, especially women and girls. Female refugees face additional hurdles to integration, from family pressures to cultural and host community expectations. These issues need to be addressed.

Project goals

SCORING GIRLS* uses football as a tool to empower a unique target group – refugee, migrant and underprivileged girls aged 9–18. A weekly programme promotes self-esteem and a sense of community to boost social integration. The SCORING GIRLS* project has been implemented in three IDP camps in Iraq and seven locations in Germany and encourages the development of a shared identity among the participants and their host communities.

Objectives

  1. Empower refugee and IDP girls through soft-skill development and psychosocial support
  2. Support the development of a strong, inclusive community by strengthening social cohesion and community services for refugees and their families
  3. Promote direct engagement and mutual understanding between refugee and IDP girls and host communities in Germany and Iraq
  4. Raise awareness of the potential of sport as a tool to empower and integrate refugees

Expected results

  1. Improved soft skills such as self-confidence, teamwork and resilience in 280 girls
  2. The construction of cohesive communities of girls with diverse backgrounds in nine locations
  3. Active support of girls involved in the project by 500 family members
  4. Some 700,000 people taught the power of sport to build cohesive communities and empower girls

Project content

The following activities will take place with 160 girls at two venues in Germany and three IDP camps in Iraq.

Weekly empowerment programme

  1. Recruitment of girls and relationship-building
  2. Weekly football-based, soft-skills programme
  3. Empowerment dialogues with role models

Community-building programme

  1. Group excursions
  2. Family engagement events and training
  3. Friendly football matches

Partners

LEARN & PLAY – Equal opportunities for education and sport for all children!

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Montenegro
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 05/30/2023
Cost of the project €60,810
Foundation funding €47,810
Project identifier 20221116
Partners NGO Parents
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Personal development

Context

Alarmingly, 33.7% of children in Montenegro experience poverty. The UNICEF report Multidimensional Child Poverty in Montenegro (2021) states that the situation is expected to get worse, compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NGO Roditelji supports children living in extreme poverty – often in informal housing, without electricity and regular meals, and socially isolated owing to discrimination. They struggle at school and often drop out at an early age. None of them have access to any sport. Without education and social inclusion, they have no chance of a better life.

Project goals

Support education and social inclusion of 1,120 children who live in extreme poverty.

Specific objectives:

  • Provide access to sport – free football training for 800 children who live in extreme poverty
  • Provide free lessons to enable 320 children to acquire basic reading and writing skills
  • Boost the children’s self-esteem, motivation and social skills
  • Promote equal opportunities for all children among the main stakeholders

Project content

Equal opportunities for education and sport for all children! The project aims to improve opportunities for children aged 6–10 who live in extreme poverty in suburban and rural areas of Nikšić municipality, by supporting their education and social inclusion through sport. The project will consist of regular football training, mentorship (teaching them grammar, reading and writing) and ending with a sports tournament. LEARN & PLAY will help them to finish school, be included in social life, and spin the wheel of change!

Sport is life-changing for underprivileged children. Sport provides them with both formal and informal education. We have shown the potential of football in Podgorica and now in Nikšić.

Activities

  1. Football training in 8 primary schools
  • Selecting schools and coordinating the approach
  • Developing a training programme for PE teachers or licensed coaches
  • Providing sports equipment for children
  • Coordinating football training twice a week for 800 children per school
  • Organising visits by famous Montenegrin football players
  1. Organising free classes according to the school curriculum
  • Recruiting volunteers who will help the children learn
  • Training for volunteers
  1. Organising a football tournament for 16 school teams (2 per school)

Partners

Life’s A Ball

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location South Africa
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €48,550
Foundation funding €48,550
Project identifier 20220332
Partners Altus Sport
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Employability - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

In parts of Tshwane (Pretoria) and Johannesburg, children live in poor socio-economic conditions with inadequate educational opportunities due to a lack of teachers, resources and classroom space. With no access to online learning, these children missed out on nearly two years of schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical education is practically absent from the school system. Sports facilities are non-existent or run-down and there are few physical education teachers and coaches.

Girls find it difficult to stand up for their rights and myths about health and reproduction hold them back from reaching their full potential. The unemployment rate is very high. Many young people lack the self-confidence and skills to find employment, and positive role models are scarce.

Project goals

  • Empower unemployed young people by educating them in personal development and leadership, basic employability skills, and fitness and sports
  • Promote physical and mental activity by introducing children to various sports and brain-fitness activities
  • Increase positive behaviour and reduce violence, physical abuse, crime and substance abuse
  • Instil positive values and good citizenship through Olympism and Olympic education
  • Motivate people with disabilities to be active
  • Support educational skills such as reading and writing
  • Empower girls by educating them about hygiene and reproductive health, leadership and basic financial management
  • Promote entrepreneurship through vegetable gardens that will teach children responsibility, financial management and leadership

Project content

The goal of the project is to utilise sport to empower children to make positive changes to their lives. The project involves training young people to run sports and life skills sessions for children. At these sessions, the children will play football, cricket, touch rugby, netball and hockey and learn about positivity, resilience, hygiene, puberty and menstruation, avoiding pregnancy, healthy relationships, bullying and peer pressure, gender-based violence and financial management.

Partners

Visiting sick children in hospitals

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Hungary
Start date 12/01/2022
End date 07/31/2024
Cost of the project €134,000
Foundation funding €20,000
Project identifier 20220462
Partners Amigos for Children Foundation
Categories Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Personal development

Context

Children may face a range of problems when they are admitted to hospital for long periods of time. They may fail to keep up with their studies and lose most of their social interactions. Frustration and a lack of motivation can adversely affect a child's fight against chronic illness.

Project goals

The Amigos for Children Foundation is working on a variety of approaches to introduce sports themes to the project’s hospital visits. With the assistance of the UEFA Foundation for Children we will add sports-related knowledge to the sessions, producing sports-themed exercise booklets. All volunteers are university students and recruitment will start in March 2023.

Project content

The project involves university student volunteers who visit long-term child patients at least twice a week to help them with their studies, assist with arts and crafts and improve social contact. The focus is on learning through play to the enjoyment of patients and volunteers alike.

The project will continue hospital visits to build on its eight successful years of experience. In 2022 the project welcomed a volunteer who had previously experienced the benefits of the programme as a patient. Bringing friendship, play and study to children's hospital bedsides, regardless of the patient’s gender, age or ethnicity, also has positive effects on recovery times.

Partners

Sport for Equal Opportunities in Armenia

Location and general information

Closed
Location Republic of Armenia
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €13,000
Foundation funding €13,000
Project identifier 20220509
Partners Bridge of Hope
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Personal development

Context

The percentage of disabled children of school age who participate in sport is much lower in remote regions of Armenia than in Yerevan. In Tavush province in northeast Armenia about 450 children with physical and psychosocial disabilities attend inclusive schools, but over 80% of them are excluded from sport and physical activities due to a lack of support from family and friends, negative school experiences, a lack of knowledge of the opportunities available and issues with transport and physical access. Another barrier to participation in sport stems from prejudices within communities and among families, school teachers, peers and the media. The project strives to remove the attitudinal barriers that currently prevent or deter disabled children from seeking inclusion in sports and physical activities.

Project goals

Promote the inclusion of children and young people with physical, mental and psychosocial disabilities, and those suffering depravation, through inclusive sports and games.

Project content

Advocacy actions that target the Armenian legal framework of sport. ‘Sport for Equal Opportunities’ awareness-raising campaigns to boost the profile of inclusive sports policies and practices in the country.

Partners

Busajo Campus: promoting education and well-being through sport

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Ethiopia
Start date 02/01/2023
End date 02/28/2024
Cost of the project €90,360
Foundation funding €40,000
Project identifier 20220532
Partners Busajo NGO Ets
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

The project is based in Sodo, a rapidly expanding city in the region of Wolaita, Ethiopia. The pace of development is generating many social problems as an increasing number of people, including many minors, migrate to the city in the hope of improving their lives and escaping the deep poverty of the countryside.

Many people moving to the city are forced to resort to marginal employment and live on the streets. Young people and children soon become targets of the criminal underworld. The situation can also be catastrophic for those who remain in rural areas as they face deprivation and poverty, often struggling to survive. There are an estimated 3,000 street children in Sodo. Many families do not have the economic capacity to meet basic needs or send their children to school.

Project goals

  • Combat slavery, crime and child prostitution
  • Improve school attendance rates
  • Enhance the physical, psychological and social conditions of the beneficiaries
  • Improve interpersonal, relationship and soft skills
  • Effectively treat rickets
  • Improve socialisation and teach tolerance and respect through sport
  • Promote inclusion and equal opportunities for girls and boys as well as between the children on campus and those living externally

Project content

Busajo Campus is a social and educational project for street children living in the city of Sodo and the surrounding rural areas. It supports rehabilitation, crime prevention and family reintegration. The project beneficiaries regain their dignity and build hopes for the future.

Thousands of children live in extreme poverty – many more than we can accommodate on our campus. For this reason, the project focuses on support for health, education and sport, for those on campus and in the vicinity.

A new off-road vehicle is required to reach remote villages.

Partner

SHARE: my story

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Senegal, Palestine and Burkina Faso
Start date 01/10/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €88,770,00
Foundation funding €72,140,00
Project identifier 20220581
Partners Exodos Ljubljana
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Conflict victims - Employability - Environmental protection - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

We strongly believe that sport and culture should be more connected and the Share: My Story programme promotes this. Children who hope to be the best footballers in the world should learn about culture for their personal growth and to broaden their horizons. We advocate for equality for girls and boys who, although from different backgrounds, all share the same passion.

Project goals

Our project encourages social, sporting and artistic bonds, promoting the talent of young people and strengthening their physical, cultural and intellectual capital.

Specific objectives

  • Provide young people from different countries with new training and cultural skills, enabling them to express their voices through art.
  • Connect sport with cultural activities, the physical with the imagination, for the surrounding communities: families, neighbours, schoolmates.
  • Empower small clubs and NGOs in their efforts to inspire creative teamwork.

Project content

Creative camps in three countries: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Palestine

  • My story – a workshop in documentary filmmaking
  • Urban dance and movement – a workshop in urban dance

Location 1: Dakar, Senegal, 10–21 January 2023

Location 2: Jenin, Ramallah, Palestine, 1–14 July 2023

Location 3: Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, 1–11 December 2023

Creating and updating project website and social media accounts, producing PR content

1 December 2022 – 31 December 2024

Completion of the professional documentary film My Story

30 March 2024

Setting up and developing local football clubs

20 January 2023 – 31 December 2023

Partners

Tackling the Blues

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Merseyside, Liverpool - England
Start date 02/01/2023
End date 02/01/2024
Cost of the project €160,821
Foundation funding €88,836
Project identifier 20220531
Partners Everton in the Community
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

Inequality is a serious problem in severely deprived areas where people are exposed to multiple risk factors, including mental illness, adverse childhood experiences and limited opportunities. Liverpool is the third most health-deprived area in England. Children and young people frequently have to wait a long time for treatment and a high proportion of youngsters with mental health issues do not receive any treatment at all.

The Tackling the Blues project seeks to address the complex social determinants and inequalities associated with mental health and illness. This is done by applying mechanisms for social inclusion and equity, namely by providing local schools with services that they would not otherwise have access to.

The project develops the youngsters’ knowledge and understanding of positive mental health strategies and resilience, which may render intervention by mental health services unnecessary. An external review by RealWorth calculated that Tackling the Blues had a societal value of £7,354,000, which suggests that it is having a significant impact for its beneficiaries.

Project goals

- Reduce inequalities and support children and young people in severely deprived areas by offering insight into the importance of positive mental health

- Support schools in the introduction of a whole-school approach to mental health

- Provide inclusive activities for children and young people, such as art, sport and education

- Adopt a mentoring approach to help pupils into full-time employment

Project content

- Weekly sessions will be delivered in the top 10% of Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) where deprivation is a serious problem and access to sport is limited.

- The project helps schools introduce a whole-school approach to mental health. Consultation with partner schools identifies relevant issues and how the project can offer support.

- Sport, art and education promote significant benefits for children’s mental and physical health. These activities will be major deliverables throughout the Tackling the Blues project.

- The project will provide students at Edge Hill University with opportunities for knowledge exchange so that they can improve skills and experience in planning and implementing mental health projects based on sport, art and education.

Partners

Junior Camp

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Poland
Start date 12/01/2022
End date 12/01/2023
Cost of the project €105,000
Foundation funding €50,000
Project identifier 20220904
Partners European Amputee Football Federation
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

The benefits of participating in sport for children are universal. In many countries, disabled children have limited access to sport even though it is their basic human right. Providing children with the opportunity to participate in a range of physical activities improves their well-being, enables them to socialise with their peers, develops social skills and enhances mental and physical health. It is important to reduce the inequalities that disabled children face as much as possible.

Project goals

- Offer equal access to sport

- Increase skill levels

- Disseminate the concept of junior amputee football

- Provide cultural exchanges for children, parents and coaches

- Develop new junior projects in the participating countries

- Increase participation in physical activities

- Increase the number of girls involved in sport

Project content

Junior Camp is a training camp for children, aged 5–16, with unilateral amputations or limb defects. Participants from all over Europe and further afield attend Junior Camp and are afforded the opportunity to play football, speak the universal language of sport and develop new skills. It is also a chance for coaches to exchange knowledge and consider developing subsequent programmes. In addition, the camp gives parents the opportunity to strengthen their bonds with their children.

Partner

Football versus Discrimination

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Ireland
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €108,000,00
Foundation funding €54,000,00
Project identifier 20221197
Partners Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

Ireland has been under international scrutiny as a country that is failing to meet its international human rights obligations to tackle racism and discrimination. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Council of Europe and the Irish Network Against Racism have all highlighted Ireland’s shortcomings: the country has an above-average number of incidents of discrimination and racist violence.

Project goals

  • Increase mutual understanding between children and young people from diverse ethnic backgrounds
  • Help combat racism and xenophobia
  • Promote the integration of immigrants into Irish schools and society
  • Promote gender equality in sport and society
  • Introduce children to the concept of human rights

Project content

Football versus Discrimination is a 75-minute interactive workshop using football as a tool to address issues of discrimination such as racism, sexism, ableism and homophobia.

  • Children learn about forms of discrimination by playing football.
  • Role-playing games are used to identify and experience how it feels to discriminate and to be discriminated against.
  • Games of fair play football (football3) are played in which participants take responsibility for their own actions. There are no referees and players are encouraged to set their own rules and resolve disagreements through dialogue.
  • In the days following the workshop, participants complete an in-class questionnaire reflecting on what they have learned.

Partner

Blind Solidarity

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Bamako, Mali
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €60,000
Foundation funding €45000
Project identifier 20220995
Partners Libre Vue and Union Malienne des Aveugles
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Employability - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

The Institut des Jeunes Aveugles in Bamako is a school for 250 children with visual impairments who live and pursue their studies in very precarious conditions. Libre Vue has delivered its blind football programme to these children since 2012. The programme consists of football adapted to visually impaired players, thereby promoting access to sport and contributing to personal development, health and inclusion.

Project goals

Our goal is to offer high-quality coaching, motivate even more young people and train coaches, guides and educators. We want to create a policy that promotes access to blind football for girls and offers them significant practice sessions. We also want to set up a sports canteen. In order to better communicate and sell artistic photographs (a source of funding for Libre Vue) we need to update our promotional film and organise new exhibitions.

Project content

Organise local and international training.

Create a ‘women's’ policy with the staff and players with regards to families and the school.

Install a canteen/bar next to the pitch (renovate old changing room hut).

Create images: produce (local) videos to update our promotional film, take photographs, organise new exhibitions, provide prints for our online Solidarity Boutique and produce impactful communication materials.

Partner

Community Champions

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Hungary, Greece, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and United-Kingdom
Start date 01/01/2022
End date 06/30/2024
Cost of the project €389,380
Foundation funding €200,000
Project identifier 20211049
Partners EFDN
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Conflict victims - Environmental protection - Gender Equality - Personal development

Context

Creating opportunities for youth to participate in safe and structured activities is a vital part of their development and the need is growing. With the aim of promoting social integration through sport, Community Champions provides the opportunity for people from different cultures to come together to build relationships and friendships while breaking down barriers through the prevention of violence, racism and intolerance in grassroots sports and their communities.

Project content

Community Champions (CC) is a social street football competition for young people aged 7 to 15 years old, organized locally across Europe. The project includes two seasons, with 12 teams in each community playing 10 games per season. Emphasis is placed on the attitudes and behaviours of the participants, more than on their footballing ability. Teams can win two-thirds of their points through Fair-Play, by completing social action projects in their communities or attending workshops.

Objectives

  • Tackle racism, discrimination and violence in sport
  • Social inclusion in and through sport
  • Promote social cohesion through sport
  • Promote active citizenship
  • Promote voluntary activity in sport
  • Promote positive involvement of parents and neighbours
  • Social inclusion and acceptance of refugees and migrants
  • Enhance social and bridging capital of participants
  • Reduction small street crime
  • Teaching valuable life skills
  • Promote healthy lifestyle

Project activities

  • 12 teams in each community per year, consisting of boys and girls, with and without a disability and from different backgrounds.
  • Teams play 10 games per season.
  • Teams will attend at least 3 workshops on racism and discrimination, fair play, and healthy lifestyles.
  • 2 Kick-off events at the beginning of each season per project partner
  • 2 Final events at the end of each season per project partner
  • Training sessions before each season
  • Teams complete regular community volunteering work.
  • The winner at the end of the season is the team that has the most points (Fair-Play, Fair Support and Volunteering in community activities points and football games points combined

Expected results

  • 8 delivering clubs.
  • 2400 participants.
  • 8 cities in 7 European countries.
  • 400 social action projects delivered in the community.
  • 216 educational workshops delivered.
  • 1440 street football matches.
  • 16 Local CC Kick-Off events.
  • 16 Local CC Finals.
  • 2 International project meetings and staff learning events.
  • 1 EFDN Conference presentation to over 200 CSR Experts.
  • 1 Project Plan
  • 1 Best Practice Handbook
  • 1 Practitioner's Guide
  • 1 Community Champions toolkit, training resources and dissemination pack
  • 1 Performance and Management Plan
  • 1 Communication and Dissemination Plan
  • 2 Interim Reports
  • 1 Final Report

Partner

Line Up, Live Up !

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Kyrgyzstan, Bichkek
Start date 01/10/2022
End date 08/10/2022
Cost of the project €44,542
Foundation funding €44,452
Project identifier 20210649
Partners Institute for Youth Development
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Personal development

Context

Physical education is vital for development and contributes to physical, social and mental health. Unemployment and the lack of leisure activities negatively affect teenagers and encourages antisocial behaviour. However, the very same teens who take the path of illegal activities have high leadership potential and are able to mobilise their peers. By harnessing this potential, it is possible to have a positive impact on their social environment.

Project content

The project aims to develop life skills through the use and promotion of football, to encourage responsible behaviour and produce greater resistance to crime, drug use and violence among young people aged 13 to 18 in Bishkek and Chui oblast. Sport provides both boys and girls with a positive experience and helps to build a sense of cohesion, commitment and support by fostering positive changes in their relationships.

Objectives

  • Encourage positive behaviour among young people through their involvement in football and sport in general
  • Promote sport for a healthy lifestyle among young people
  • Encourage marginalised youngsters leading an antisocial lifestyle to take up sport

Project activities

  • Community meetings with school administrators and community bodies to discuss launching the Line Up, Live Up project
  • Set up a team of coaches to run the project
  • Form football teams in schools and conduct workouts with a coach
  • Hold a football tournament

Expected results

  • Reach at least 6 municipalities in the Chui region and Bishkek
  • At least 12 schools in target municipalities are involved
  • At least 240 schoolchildren aged 13-18 take part in the project, at least 30 of whom are from a marginalised group
  • Coaching team comprises at least 12 people

Partner

Fitba First

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Scotland
Start date 01/03/2022
End date 12/31/2022
Cost of the project €59,149
Foundation funding €47,461
Project identifier 20210327
Partners The Scottish Football Partnership Trust
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Personal development

Context

The Fitba First project invests in young, vulnerable primary schoolchildren living in poverty across deprived areas of Scotland. It aims to maximise their future prospects for health and well-being by providing free-to-access fun football activities, health education and hot, healthy meals.

 

Project content

This project aims to invest in 600 young primary school children all across Scotland to help maximise their future health and well-being by providing fun, free-to-access football activities, positive nutritional messages, healthy meals (breakfast and lunch) and bespoke training in sports first aid.

Objectives

To provide 600 young primary school children with opportunities to take part in the following free activities during school holiday periods:

Football

  • Free activities help reduce the financial barriers facing many children in Scotland. The project aims to use the positive medium of football to create a sense of inclusion at the same time as improving the participants' physical and mental well-being.

 

Sports first-aid training

  • Educating children through sport. Increasing knowledge and understanding. Increasing confidence. Developing life-saving skills. Safer sport/safer communities.
  • What to do in an emergency. How to call an ambulance. Chest compressions. Using a defibrillator.
  • What do to if someone chokes. What to do is someone’s bleeding. When and how to use ice on injuries. How to help someone having an asthma attack.

 

Meals and positive nutritional messages

  • Tackling food inequalities during school holidays with the provision of free healthy breakfasts and lunches, while sending positive nutritional messages about leading a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

Project activities

Hour 1 - Football and fitness session

Session structure:

  • Structured warm-ups and cool-downs
  • Weekly football themes – passing, dribbling, technique and control, shooting, defending and football agility
  • Fun game-related activities
  • Team-building and problem-solving activities focusing on improving confidence, communication, team-work, decision-making, respect for others and developing participants’ cognitive skills
  • Small-sided games – fun and competitive play and freedom of expression

 

Hour 2 – Positive nutritional messages and healthy, hot, homemade meal

Session structure:

  • The Eatwell Guide
  • Food groups and their purpose
  • Water and hydration
  • Energy values
  • Healthy cooked meal
  • Personal hygiene – washing hands and table manners

Expected results

  • Provide opportunities for 600 young disadvantaged children to take part in the Fitba Firs project, helping them to become happier, healthier and more engaged through the delivery of 9,600 individual hours of football activity and health education
  • Encouraging and enabling the inactive to be active
  • Developing physical confidence and competence from the earliest age
  • Improving opportunities to participate, progress and achieve in sport
  • Supporting the well-being and resilience of communities through physical activity and sport
  • Tackling food inequality

Partner

Growing up with dignity

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Madagascar
Start date 02/01/2022
End date 06/30/2023
Cost of the project €189,354
Foundation funding €75,742
Project identifier 210951
Partners Grandir Dignement
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

In Madagascar, the detention conditions of the approximately 950 incarcerated children are extremely precarious and detrimental to their proper development. Their basic needs (food, health and hygiene) are not even minimally met. Children are regularly victims of serious violence from prison officers, who are often unaware that children have rights. Finally, there is virtually no preparation for their socio-educational reintegration.

Project content

The project will run for 18 months and support 400 children (girls and boys) in six jails and 100 children living in two Grandir Dignement post-incarceration centres or supported by social workers. The aim is to provide educational, sports, literacy and occupational training activities, to improve their detention conditions and socio-educational integration so that they can live independent lives when they are released. The project involves daily contact with activity leaders, educators and trainers, six days a week both inside and outside prisons.

Objectives

  • Improve the detention conditions and socio-professional integration of incarcerated children.
  • Provide 400 incarcerated girls and boys with sports/educational activities and occupational trainingHelp
  • 100 children or teenagers to reintegrate into society after their release
  • Educate families and prison officers about children's rights, educational topics and gender issues
  • Raise awareness among the general public to combat stigmatisation

Project activities

Objective 1

  • Educational activities: (i) social and educational support (individual interviews for newcomers, individual information sheets, monthly individual interviews and weekly educational schedules), (ii) home and family visits to involve the families in the process and (iii) life project’ building and preparation for social reintegration.
  • Sport and cultural activities to improve well-being : (i) artistic and cultural activities and (ii) sports activities.
  • Occupational training and literacy relevant to the life project: (i) literacy activities and (ii) occupational training.

Objective 2

  • Educational activities : (i) educational support, (ii) home and family visits and (iii) life project building and preparation for social integration.
  • Sport and cultural activities: (i) artistic and cultural activities, (ii) sports activities and (iii) sports tournaments with other organisations.

Objective 3

  • Raise family awareness of educational and social issues : (i) identify topics for family workshops and (ii) workshops.
  • Raise awareness of educational and social issues among prison staff and social workers: identify topics for workshops and (ii) workshops.

Objective 4

  • Establish dialogue with the communities and local authorities to combat stigmatisation: (i) meetings with judiciary and ministry of justice officers and (ii) meetings with local organisations, local authorities and community leaders.
  • Raise awareness among the population to combat stigmatisation: (i) run an awareness communication campaign and (ii) distribute an awareness media release.

Expected results

Objective 1

  • 400 incarcerated children given support
  • Increase activities in prison: (i) 1 session of artistic and cultural activities per week/prison and (ii) 2 sessions of sport, literacy activities and occupational training per week/prison
  • 80% of families visited

Objective 2

  • 100 children receive support after their release
  • 50 children involved in tournaments with other organisations
  • 80% of families visited

Objective 3

  • 36 workshops with families: quarterly in six jails
  • 36 workshops with prison staff: quarterly in six jails
  • 6 topics for workshops with families and prison staff

Objective 4

  • 18 meetings with judiciary and ministry of justice officers: half-yearly in six localities
  • 18 meetings with local organisations, local authorities and community leaders: half-yearly in six localities
  • 6 radio awareness campaigns broadcast three times each in two localities
  • 12 awareness press releases distributed three times each in four localities

Partner