T.E.A.M Project

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Scotland
Start date 04/01/2025
End date 03/31/2026
Cost of the project €148,000
Foundation funding €78,144
Project identifier 2024001326
Partners Big Hearts Community Trust
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

In Scotland, vulnerable children affected by trauma, poverty, cultural differences, language barriers, disabilities or mental health issues are at risk of struggling with the transition from primary to secondary school. Support for these children has been found to be particularly insufficient in Edinburgh, Falkirk, Paisley, Motherwell and Greenock.

Project goals

The T.E.A.M project uses football as a tool to improve the resilience and social connectedness of vulnerable children. It aims to:

  • Encourage new friendships and social connections
  • Help to forge connections between participants and their community
  • Improve physical health
  • Boost confidence and well-being

Project content

The project delivers weekly football sessions alongside confidence and resilience-building activities for 250 marginalised children aged 10 to 12, and they are also given a healthy snack during each session.

More than 80% of the children experience an improvement in their confidence and well-being. Parents feel more confident in supporting their children and children feel better connected in their personal relationships.

A model and learning plan are being developed with a view to rolling the programme out to more Scottish communities in the medium to long term.

Partners

Prishtina Girls’ Football Team

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Kosovo
Start date 02/01/2025
End date 07/31/2026
Cost of the project €161,650
Foundation funding €100,000
Project identifier 2024001492
Partners KFV Prishtina
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

Cultural norms and structural barriers limit girls' participation in sport in Kosovo. A lack of institutional support and inadequate infrastructure are particular obstacles.

Thanks to the UEFA foundation, a big step forward has been made, however, with the creation of the first football field in Kosovo managed by a women’s team, KFV Prishtina, through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Municipality of Prishtina.

Project goals

  • Create a safe, empowering and inclusive environment where girls from all communities and of all abilities can thrive in football, breaking down societal barriers and encouraging equal, active participation
  • Advocate for girls’ rights, raise awareness of gender-based violence and promote gender equality, social inclusion and empowerment within and beyond football
  • Promote leadership, peacebuilding, diversity, teamwork, respect and negotiation skills for personal and professional growth

Project content

  • Strategic partnerships: Establishing of long-term MoUs with other stakeholders to ensure sustained access to schools and sports facilities, creating a robust ecosystem for women’s football in Kosovo
  • Media awareness: A joint press conference with the Football Federation of Kosovo to launch the project and a dedicated Women in Football channel supported by leading news portals, raising awareness of gender equality in sport
  • Infrastructure development: Improving and adapting sports facilities to ensure equal access for girls, essential football equipment and coaching resources, and dedicated spaces for female athletes
  • Mixed participation: Promoting the integration of girls into U9 and U11 boys' leagues to normalise mixed participation and address the challenge of limited girls-only leagues
  • FC Barcelona collaboration: Partnership with FC Barcelona to include girls in all Barça Academy activities in Kosovo, providing equal opportunities and promoting inclusivity in football from a young age
  • Gender-based violence prevention: Educational workshops for girls and coaches to teach about preventing and reporting gender-based violence in line with the UEFA guidelines on child and youth protection
  • Free coaching and role models: Free, structured football training sessions in schools, using national team players as role models to inspire and encourage young female athletes
  • Parent and community engagement: Establishing a parents' council for all U9-U15 teams, promoting increased parental involvement in girls' as well as boys’ football
  • Inclusivity for disabled girls: Ongoing free football training for girls with Down’s syndrome (MoU with Down Syndrome Kosova), promoting inclusivity and participation in sport
  • Women’s leadership in sport: Supporting and encouraging women’s participation in refereeing and coaching, increasing female representation in decision-making roles within football
  • Mental health and well-being: Advocating for the mental health benefits of sport, fostering resilience, confidence and well-being among young female athletes
  • Environmental sustainability: Empowering girls to take leadership roles in environmental sustainability initiatives, integrating sustainable practices into football training and events
  • Alignment with SDGs: Ensuring the project contributes to global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to gender equality, education, health and climate action through sport

Partners

Mbo Mpenza Challenge

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Belgium
Start date 09/01/2024
End date 09/01/2026
Cost of the project €141,748
Foundation funding €85,000
Project identifier 2024000539
Partners Impala Performance ASBL
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Young people have been benefiting from the Mbo Mpenza Challenge’s football tournaments for seven years. For the last year, all schools in the French-speaking Community of Belgium have had free access to the project’s pedagogical resources through their e-learning platforms. Moving forward, the project wants to reach more children and develop its work within schools.

Project goals

  • Introduce the Mbo Mpenza method in schools as part of general civics and PE lessons
  • Promote inclusion and diversity through football
  • Educate young people on tackling discrimination
  • Raise responsible, respectful and tolerant citizens
  • Evaluate the project’s impact on young people
  • Broaden access to sport for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background

Project content

The Mbo Mpenza method fights all forms of discrimination through its work on three pillars: awareness-raising, training and action. By working with schools, the project hopes to broaden its reach and engage with children from all backgrounds who have not always had access to sport. With the awareness-raising and training aspects of the project already under way, focus now turns to the action pillar.

A number of activities and programmes are planned, including:

  • Organising the Mbo Mpenza Challenge, a national and international football tournament
  • Developing an application to assess results and ensure continued support for participants
  • Sponsoring children from disadvantaged areas to give them access to sport
  • Running educational workshops on topics such as fighting discrimination, first aid and nutrition
  • Educating young people through civics and French lessons and educational and sporting activities

Partners

Values on the Field: Football for social development and equity

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Argentina
Start date 01/02/2025
End date 06/30/2026
Cost of the project €280,055
Foundation funding €106,408
Project identifier 2024000047
Partners River Plate Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Employability - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Context

The socioeconomic situation in Argentina is critical, with 54.3% of children living in poverty (INDEC, 2022), only 50% of young people completing high school education and basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics steadily declining (UNICEF, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these inequalities. However, thanks to football’s popularity, educational sports projects are helping to reintegrate excluded children in marginalised areas of Argentina, ensuring long-term sustainability.

In Argentina, around 20,000 community clubs are playing a crucial role by providing vital social and recreational activities, giving many children a first opportunity to participate in sport and offering a space for community participation regardless of economic circumstances. They serve as safe havens that keep children off the streets, engage them in health-promoting activities and instil values essential for their adult lives.

Project goals

Overall goal

Improve the quality of life of children and their families by providing them with tools and skills to meet future challenges and integrate into society.

Specific objectives

  • Encourage and strengthen the holistic development of vulnerable children through educational projects
  • Train social leaders in the River Plate Foundation’s specific methodology
  • Use football as a tool for social engagement and value formation to empower children and their families to become agents of change in their communities
  • Generate opportunities for personal development and social integration

Project content

Values on the Field is a comprehensive programme designed to foster social development and equality through sport, specifically targeting children and young people between the ages of 6 and 14. The programme operates in seven Football and Values Schools, using a special methodology to provide a structured environment in which participants can engage in football and other sports activities that promote social and personal values. Inter-school meetings give the participants the chance to meet other children and put their skills into practice, and the foundation has also built five multi-sport courts. The programme emphasises the importance of integrating women and indigenous communities, ensuring inclusivity and diversity in all activities.

Partners

Empowering Zambian adolescents to conserve nature through sport

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Basanga community, Musungwa chiefdom, Itezhi-Tezhi district, Southern Province, Zambia
Start date 03/31/2027
End date 03/31/2027
Cost of the project €125,250
Foundation funding €54,750
Project identifier 2024000945
Partners Game Rangers International
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Employability - Environmental protection - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

Over two-thirds of the estimated 12,000 people living in the remote Basanga community are under the age of 19. These children and adolescents face many challenges, including a lack of education, food insecurity and inadequate healthcare.

Basanga lies on the edge of Zambia’s largest and oldest protected area, Kafue National Park, a rich ecosystem home to 30% of the country’s total elephant population and countless large carnivore species. Desperate community members living in poverty are drawn to poaching as they face scare employment opportunities and may not see the value of natural resources. At the same time, the absence of law enforcement lowers their risk perception. Single unemployed women in Zambia are particularly vulnerable to being exploited by the illegal wildlife trade. Women are considerably less likely than men to report wildlife crime and are drawn to exchange information, sex and secure accommodation on the borders of the park for bushmeat or money. This dangerous cycle of transactional sex perpetuates the spread of HIV, gender-based violence and unwanted pregnancies.

Project goals

  • Reduce wildlife crime in and around Kafue National Park by raising awareness of conservation efforts and empowering young people through vocational training
  • Improve young people’s health, well-being, problem-solving, leadership and resilience
  • Prevent unplanned pregnancies, child marriage and sexual and spousal violence in Basanga by championing sexual health education and empowering girls

Project content

Game Rangers International (GRI) is building a multi-purpose community youth sports centre for the Basanga community. Over the next two years, with critical support from the UEFA Foundation for Children, GRI will engage, educate and empower children and adolescents at the centre, helping them to develop their skills and surrounding them with positive role models.

To this end, GRI will:

  • Recruit and train a groundsman responsible for security and maintenance
  • Recruit and train a community outreach ranger to schedule activities, develop content, coordinate partnerships and facilitate sessions
  • Furnish and equip the centre so it can serve as a classroom, exhibition space, sports centre and outreach office
  • Decorate the centre with conservation awareness posters and information
  • Encourage children and adolescents to visit through radio broadcasts, posters and school visits
  • Offer structured weekly football training and fitness sessions for children and adolescents
  • Establish a vocational skills station and invite local professionals to offer short vocational courses for young people
  • Offer children and adolescents training on environmental conservation, girls’ empowerment and life skills

Partners

UniDeportes: Football for rural youth empowerment

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Honduras, Trinidad, Santa Bàrbara
Start date 03/31/2025
End date 12/31/2026
Cost of the project €96,381
Foundation funding €56,381
Project identifier 2024001385
Partners educate.
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

Honduras has the highest rate of economic inequality in Latin America and over 60% of the population lives in poverty. The NGO educate. is based in the rural department of Santa Bárbara, where barely half of young people continue their studies after primary school. For those who do stay in school, there are few opportunities that encourage personal development, a sense of belonging and meaningful community engagement. Sport plays both an educational and a social role and can help young people to develop values, skills and confidence they can use on and off the pitch.

Project goals

  • Help young people to develop a sense of unity and community belonging through sport
  • Support young people to develop core values and soft skills, such as leadership, teamwork and communication through sport, community events and monthly workshops
  • Train young people to lead local sports activities, helping them to gain leadership skills, confidence and practical experience
  • Encourage young people to get involved in their communities by organising and leading community sports events
  • Create spaces for children and teenagers in local rural communities to participate in sport and community events
  • Actively promote gender equality by ensuring at least 50% of programme participants are girls

Project content

Using educate.’s youth centre in the rural town of Trinidad, Santa Bárbara, which has access to a community football pitch, the following four elements combine to provide a holistic sports programme for rural youngsters that fosters positive values, soft skills and gender equity.

1) UniDeportes sports programme for youth leaders

Activities will be run every Saturday following the training of three youth leaders. These activities will focus on football but also explore other sports, encouraging participants to lead active, healthy lifestyles. In addition, these sessions will focus on building soft skills, particularly leadership skills, through sport, as well as giving young people a sense of community and helping them to work as a team. These young leaders will also receive monthly workshops on a range of personal development topics, ensuring they are supported in their own development.

2) Monthly rural community sports events

Project participants, led by youth leaders, will organise and lead monthly sports events, such as community and village sports days. The NGO educate. works in a number of remote, rural and marginalised communities, whose children and teenagers are particularly vulnerable to losing out on educational and extracurricular opportunities such as sport.

3) Football teams for children and teenagers

The project will set up six mixed gender football teams in Trinidad, each with weekly training sessions. The teams will cover a range of age categories from 6 to 18.

4) The first youth football league in Trinidad, Santa Bárbara

The project will organise and run the first youth football league in Trinidad. This will be a significant opportunity for children and teenagers from rural areas to participate in an organised football league, the first of its kind in this part of the country.

Partners

Football for All

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Vietnam: Cao Bang, Can Tho, Ha Giang and Quang Tri provinces, and an additional two provinces in the Mekong Delta (provinces tbc based on feasibility studies)
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2026
Cost of the project €159,951
Foundation funding €101,733
Project identifier 2024001059
Partners Football Association of Norway (Football for All in Vietnam project)
Categories Access to Sport - Employability - Environmental protection - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

In many ethnic minorities in Vietnam, boys enjoy more social and cultural opportunities than girls, who are expected to grow up to be wives and mothers. Girls therefore tend to be less educated, forced into early marriage and denied the chance to develop in other areas of life.

Project goals

  • Raise awareness of gender equality among ethnic minorities by fostering equal participation of women and girls in football and life skills education
  • Empower and equip girls and women in an additional two provinces by offering leadership training based on the Football for All in Vietnam model that has been funded by the UEFA Foundation for Children in Ha Giang province since 2022

Project content

The 138 football clubs in Ha Giang, Quang Tri, Cao Bang and Can Tho provinces that were funded by the UEFA Foundation for Children between 2022 and 2024 will be given additional football equipment and continued support, and new clubs created, with:

  • football coaching courses at 41 new football clubs in Quang Tri and Cao Bang provinces;
  • training courses for female life skills instructors at each new club;
  • climate change education at the clubs in Cao Bang and Ha Giang provinces in the far north of the country;
  • regular football and life skill activities at all 138 existing clubs; and
  • 118 ‘Fun Football Festivals’ at the existing clubs.

The project will also be extended to another two provinces, with:

  • a feasibility study in each province;
  • the creation of 30 new football clubs, with football coaching and life skills training courses at each club;
  • 30 ‘Fun Football Festivals’ (one per club);and
  • two provincial ‘Fun Football Festivals’ (one per province).

Partners

READY TO USE FFAV OFFICIAL Logo

Score! Kick away drugs and smoking among youth using the power of football

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Indonesia, Jakarta
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2025
Cost of the project €60,000
Foundation funding €50,000
Project identifier 2024000137
Partners ASA Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Drug use and smoking are becoming increasingly widespread among young people in Jakarta, Indonesia. The UEFA Foundation for Children supports the ASA Foundation's Score! programme, which leverages football to promote healthy lifestyles, healthy habits and values in a collaborative environment.

Project goals

  • Educate young people on the dangers of drugs and smoking
  • Promote healthy lifestyles through football
  • Train 60 teachers to deliver health and sports education
  • Engage over 6,000 students in weekly health-oriented football activities
  • Foster gender equality by ensuring equal participation
  • Enhance teamwork skills, leadership and self-esteem among participants
  • Strengthen the community’s involvement in promoting healthy behaviour

Project content

  • Teacher training workshops enabling 60 middle school teachers to deliver health and sports education effectively
  • Weekly training sessions consisting of football drills paired with health education for over 6,000 male and female students
  • Life skills development, with a focus on gender equality, teamwork, and leadership
  • Workshops and campaigns involving parents to amplify the programme's message

Partners

StationSoccer – HE Holmes

Location and general information

to be started
Location USA; Atlanta
Start date 04/15/2025
End date 12/15/2025
Cost of the project €95,496
Foundation funding €27,232
Project identifier 2024000858
Partners Soccer in the streets
Categories Access to Sport - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

Atlanta has the highest income inequality of any city in the United States. This, combined with the ‘pay-to-play’ model that dominates football activities in the US, means children in underserved communities are locked out of participation. These children need affordable programmes in safe, accessible locations. Soccer in the Streets provides just that with StationSoccer.

StationSoccer – HE Holmes is located at the subway station of that name in the Collier Heights neighbourhood of Atlanta. With a per capita income of $33,759 (€33,068) and a poverty rate of 25%, it is one of the most underinvested communities in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. The project will provide Soccer in the Streets’ unique combination of football training and social and emotional capacity building to 150 six to twelve-year-olds. It is estimated that 80% of participants will be African American, 40% of the participants are girls and the vast majority will be playing football for the first time.

Project goals

  • Provide access
    • Eliminate transport obstacles and cost barriers
  • Improve well-being
    • Integrate social and emotional learning into the football curriculum
    • Train coaches to follow the curriculum and recognise adverse childhood experiences

Project content

Football and social and emotional learning sessions

  • Two 2-hour training sessions a week, with matches on Saturdays
  • Total of 26 weeks of training over the year (spring season from 15 February to 15 May, and autumn season from 15 August to 15 November)
  • Incorporation of social and emotional learning in training sessions, with a focus on resilience, self-management, social awareness, decision-making and relationships

Coach training

  • Coach training session in July to help coaches follow the curriculum and recognise adverse childhood experiences

Partners

Igombe sports and community centre

Location and general information

to be started
Location Tanzania, Igombe, Mwanza
Start date 05/01/2025
End date 10/31/2025
Cost of the project €87,232
Foundation funding €62,232
Project identifier 2024001169
Partners Sports Charity Mwanza
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment

Context

Access to sport in the Mwanza region of Tanzania is limited for economic, structural and social reasons. After leaving school, young people often find themselves on the streets with no recreational opportunities, vulnerable to the risk of delinquency and abuse. In particular, many children with complicated family situations have no adult role model to guide them in their choices. Meanwhile, it is generally recognised that physical and mental health problems are exacerbated by a lack of access to sport.

Project goals

  • Improve access to sport for children and young people in Mwanza
  • Reduce the risk of delinquency and abuse
  • Give young people adult role models
  • Reduce physical and mental health problems
  • Strengthen the local community

Project content

  • Construction of a sports and community centre offering one full-size and one half football pitch, one basketball court, two volleyball courts, one netball court, and storage and changing facilities
  • Training and qualifications for volunteer coaches
  • Working with local coaches to ensure that all age groups and genders have opportunities to use the pitch
  • Particular focus on school-leavers, since they often struggle with the transition to adult life

Partners

Breaking Barriers : Well-being, Sport, and Social Integration for Children in Conflict with the Law in Madagascar and Cameroon

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Madagascar and Cameroon
Start date 12/01/2024
End date 05/31/2025
Cost of the project €300,000
Foundation funding €120,000
Project identifier 2024001074
Partners Grandir Dignement
Categories Access to Sport - Employability - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

Improve the living conditions, physical and mental well-being, and social and professional integration of children in conflict with the law in Madagascar and Cameroon, by supporting local actors and promoting children's rights

Project goals

  • Improve conditions for children in detention and ensure they meet the fundamental needs of children in conflict with the law
  • Promote personal development and foster social and professional integration for children in conflict with the law
  • Empower children to advocate for their rights and increase societal awareness of their rights and needs

Project content

 

To ensure children in detention experience improved living conditions and enhanced physical and mental well-being:

  • Daily nutritional support
  • Medical support and essential supplies (first-aid kits, medicines and hygiene products)
  • Ensuring access to urgent medical care, including hospitalisation, psychological support, nutritional care and detoxification services
  • Facilitating access to sport, recreation and cultural activities during detention and legal proceedings, including football, dance, circus, basketball and theatre
  • Football tournaments involving young people from other associations and/or schools
  • Rehabilitation of detention infrastructure, including sports, sanitation and kitchen facilities

To ensure children are supported in developing their skills and life plans to achieve social and professional integration:

  • Co-development of life plans with children, guided by educators
  • Financial support for school fees, vocational training and income-generating activities tailored to each child's own plans
  • Regular visits and meetings with families to support, educate and empower them in their parenting roles

To ensure children in conflict with the law become active advocates for their rights in society:

  • Awareness-raising workshops for minors in detention facilities
  • Workshops led by peer mentors, i.e. young people previously supported by Grandir Dignement
  • Artistic productions to encourage personal expression and creativity

Partners

Mutola Cup Football League for Girls ́ Rights

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location All provinces of Mozambique, except Cabo Delgado
Start date 01/20/2025
End date 12/31/2025
Cost of the project €217,879
Foundation funding €75,798
Project identifier 2024000927
Partners Futebol dá força foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

Mozambique remains one of the world's poorest countries, where traditional norms, attitudes and social structures restrict girls' rights and opportunities and prevent them from having their most basic needs met, from going to school to growing up in a safe and healthy environment. Sexual abuse and domestic violence are widespread, as is the rate of HIV among young women. Access to sex education is sorely lacking.

Project goals

With coaches acting as role models, offering weekly training sessions accompanied by health and sex education, the aim is not only to share information but to encourage interactive discussion of topics such as life skills and sexual and reproductive health and rights, to create a sense of agency among girls and promote healthy sexual practices. Girls and other members of the community will gain knowledge and learn how to put this knowledge into practice.

Project content

The football league, Mutola Cup, is part of the national school curriculum. With regular football training sessions, team talks and matches alongside workshops led by Futebol dá força's certified voluntary football coaches, it serves as an educational platform and support structure to advance girls’ education, empowerment and rights, in particular their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The Mutola Cup helps prevent child marriage, teenage pregnancy, violence, abuse and discrimination by providing girls with a support structure within the education system that keeps them in school and raises awareness of their rights and opportunities. Anti-hate and anti-discrimination approaches are fully integrated into the evidence-based methodology and tools used.

Partners

Logo

Play for Equality

Location and general information

En cours
Location Ukraine (countrywide except for the temporarily occupied territories)
Start date 02/03/2025
End date 12/31/2025
Cost of the project €141,300
Foundation funding €92,500
Project identifier 2024000853
Partners Klitschko Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

The war in Ukraine has traumatised many children, with 75% experiencing symptoms such as emotional instability and trouble sleeping. As a result of the shift to online learning, over three quarters of schoolchildren now lead a sedentary lifestyle and only 5% are in good health by the time they leave school. Gender inequality is another problem facing Ukraine, which ranked 66th out of 146 countries in the 2023 Global Gender Gap Index. School is often the first place where children encounter inequality.

Project goals

  • Promote mental health through sport and encourage schoolchildren to get active
  • Champion equal opportunities in sport
  • Educate and empower PE teachers
  • Provide schools with sports equipment and help them to create sports programmes
  • Raise awareness of these topics

Project content

  • A five-day in-person training session for 80 PE teachers from across Ukraine
  • Local sports programmes for children aged 6 to 18 years old led by PE teachers, with a minimum of 75 participants per school
  • Sports equipment for participating schools
  • A week-long innovative sports and educational camp for 120 children aged 11 or 12 and 24 teachers
  • New lessons introduced into the school curriculum

Partners

Football for Life

Location and general information

to be started
Location Switzerland, Bern
Start date 08/01/2025
End date 07/31/2026
Cost of the project €292,037
Foundation funding €50,000
Project identifier 2024000886
Partners Swiss Academy for Development
Categories Access to Sport - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Exercise, sport and play are key components of a child’s development that promote curiosity, empathy, social interaction, learning, joy and much more. At the same time, language skills are essential for education, work and social life. In Switzerland, there are great inequalities across both language development and physical activity, with children and young people from underprivileged backgrounds at a disadvantage. These inequalities often impact school performance, physical and mental well-being and personal development. Experiences at an early age set the tone for life. Getting involved in sport and developing language skills while young can support ongoing skills development and future educational success.

Project goals

Overall goal

Provide equal access to opportunities for education and development and foster the social integration of children, especially girls, from a migrant background through sport.

Specific objectives

  • Provide children with regular access to exercise and sport
  • Enhance children's language and learning skills through a movement-based learning approach, using football as a motivational tool
  • Encourage the development of personal and social skills through sports and play-based learning activities

Project content

The project Football for Life uses football to support 8 to 13-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds. The project consists of weekly football training sessions that foster language development and regular cultural events, such as a children's press conference with professional football players.

The training sessions and cultural events are organised and delivered by multidisciplinary teams comprising students from Bern University of Teacher Education, coaches from local grassroots sports clubs and teachers from participating primary schools.

The weekly training sessions, which take place at the primary schools, address topics relating to football in a playful and interactive way and offer dynamic opportunities for language use. Activities designed to enhance the children’s language skills include discussing player roles and team dynamics and working collaboratively to develop game strategies. At the same time, the sessions develop motor skills and football-specific techniques and promote values such as fairness, teamwork and self-confidence.

All project activities are based on the Swiss Academy for Development’s well-established, award-winning approach, which fosters life skills through sport and play.

Partners

Educafoot

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Benin, Parakou and Cotonou
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2027
Cost of the project €46,986
Foundation funding €30,000
Project identifier 2024000683
Partners Association Kenskoazell Afrika
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Since 2019, the Educafoot programme, in particular the educational element, has been refined following regular dialogue with the UEFA Foundation for Children to arrive at the programme currently being run in Senegal (ten schools), Côte d’Ivoire (50 schools) and Benin (now being expanded following a trial in five schools).

Project goals

  • Help children grow into the citizens of tomorrow by nurturing skills and values such as gender equality, environmental awareness, a work ethic, self-improvement, leadership, decision-making, social coexistence, following rules, respecting opponents and the importance of mental and physical well-being
  • Ensure access to sport by equipping 15 schools each year for three years and enabling thousands of children to take part in the Educafoot programme

Project content

The Educafoot programme's approach includes organising participants into mixed teams for the various events, having girls and boys referee, appointing co-captains, screening and discussing an educational film about the environment, making a net from plastic waste, encouraging the children to help clean the school before each match, and giving them French and mathematics tests.

Partners

Logo1

Blind Solidarity

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Mali, Bamako
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2025
Cost of the project €59,000
Foundation funding €40,000
Project identifier 2024000675
Partners Association Libre Vue
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Employability - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

The political situation in Mali is highly unstable, and relations with France are particularly tense following the European country’s military withdrawal. This instability and widespread conflict contribute to high levels of internal displacement and poverty in one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2012, Libre Vue launched the Blind Solidarity project at the Institut des Jeunes Aveugles in Bamako (a school for 250 visually impaired children living in highly precarious conditions). The association built infrastructure including a special pitch suitable for blind football and started offering regular football coaching.

Project goals

The charity’s next steps as the project continues are to:

  • resurface the artificial pitch for blind football in order to improve playing conditions and enable Blind Solidarity to rent it out and therefore become more self-sufficient
  • step up educational measures on how to keep the pitch and its surroundings clean and in good condition
  • foster the long-term growth of blind football among girls
  • use social media to communicate more effectively throughout the country using social network

Project content

  • Resurface the artificial pitch for blind football
  • Hold regular discussions with the families of girls, in particular
  • Implement routine pitch-maintenance measures
  • Train the manager of the facilities

Partners