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

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

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

football3 at school

Location and general information

to be started
Location Poland
Start date 07/01/2025
End date 10/31/2026
Cost of the project €160,320
Foundation funding €48,700
Project identifier 2024001156
Partners Trenuj Bycie Dobrym
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Gender Equality - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

A significant challenge facing football in Poland is gender inequality, notably in terms of access and representation. In 2022, only 6.7% of the country’s 443,525 football players were women and only two of the 12 top-division women's football teams had a female manager. Children learn from an early age that football is only for boys, a stereotype which can be tackled at school.

Project goals

Breaking down stereotypes takes hard work and time. Our experience has shown that schools are a great place to tackle this problem, and teachers, children and parents can all play a part. Over the last three years, we have seen football3 change people’s outlooks. The project encourages girls to get involved in football and boys to support them, while at the same time showing teachers the potential benefits of incorporating football3 into their daily work.

  • Promote equal access to football for girls and boys
  • Raise awareness of football3 and its use in promoting inclusivity in sports for 7 to 9-year-olds
  • Strengthen cooperation with the Polish Football Association to encourage more girls and women to get involved in football3

Project content

  • Run 16 in-person certified football3 training sessions in all 16 regions of Poland
  • Deliver at least 500 football3 lessons to over 4,500 children over the 2025/26 school year
  • Organise 16 football3 changemakers tournaments across the country and a final gala to promote equal access to football for everyone
  • Research and assess the project’s impact

Partners

Sport in the Service of Peace

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Israel
Start date 12/01/2024
End date 11/30/2025
Cost of the project €218,686
Foundation funding €65,385
Project identifier 2024000740
Partners Peres Center for Peace and Innovation
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Even before the tragic events in Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza, relations between Israelis and Palestinians and between Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel were marred by a longstanding conflict that has led to multi-generational fear, distrust and discrimination. Children and youth are particularly vulnerable to radicalising ‘us and them’ rhetoric, which has only got worse with the current war. It is therefore crucial to provide opportunities for positive dialogue that will enable Jewish and Arab children and young people to challenge their fears and break through the psychological, emotional and linguistic barriers that impede the building of foundations for mutual trust, respect and peace.

Project goals

  • Facilitate intercultural dialogue and peacebuilding among Jewish and Arab children, young people and adults in Israel and, if possible, in the Palestinian territories
  • Promote positive perceptions, challenge negative stereotypes and foster cooperation, trust and understanding among participants
  • Increase access to high-quality sport and peace education, especially on the geographic and socioeconomic peripheries

Project content

The Sport in the Service of Peace programme employs a ‘train the trainers’ model, working with community leaders and educators to provide anti-discrimination and leadership training for young people. Jewish and Arab educational partners work together to implement football-based peace education activities for children aged 8 to 12 in both mono- and bi-cultural contexts. Such activities include regular football training, Hebrew/Arabic language learning, cultural exchanges and peace education sessions, as well as football matches played in mixed Jewish-Arab teams using the FairPlay and Green Card methodologies.

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), Ivory Coast (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

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Sports centres for children, young people and their families

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Switzerland
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2025
Cost of the project €7,694,307
Foundation funding €80,000
Project identifier 2024000282
Partners Fondation IdéeSport
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Children and young people today often suffer from a sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise, excessive use of social media, mental health problems, limited access to sports facilities and gender stereotypes. Participating in sport can help to address these issues and gives children a chance to meet new people, thereby supporting their healthy development and integration into the community.

Project goals

The IdéeSport Foundation uses sport to get young people moving, encourage them to lead a healthy lifestyle and prevent addiction. It aims to actively promote integration, particularly of disabled or migrant children and young people, by welcoming those from all social backgrounds, regardless of their gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity or sporting ability.

Project content

IdéeSport gives children and young people opportunities to meet, train and play in local public sports centres at weekends and during the holidays. The programmes are:

  • PeerPower, aimed at teenagers and young adults
  • MidnightSports, aimed at secondary school students
  • OpenSunday and ActiveWeek, aimed at primary school pupils
  • MiniMove, aimed at preschoolers and their parents

Partners

Football versus Discrimination

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Ireland
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2026
Cost of the project €268,773,88
Foundation funding €100,000
Project identifier 2024001292
Partners Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI)
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Ireland has become an increasingly diverse community, with people of many ethnic backgrounds migrating and/or seeking asylum in Ireland. SARI proactively celebrates this but understands that it brings challenges. Over the past 12-16 months, Ireland has seen the rise of the far-right with an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment, protests and violent riots.
Sport can play a pivotal role in addressing these issues.

Project goals

The aim of the project is to break down barriers and further social inclusion by bringing people of different communities together through sport – and specifically football – to learn about, examine and challenge concepts such as discrimination and racism as well as learn about other cultures and Irish society. Specific goals are to:

  •  Increase mutual understanding between children & young people from diverse ethnic backgrounds
  • Help combat racism & all forms of discrimination
  • Promote the integration and inclusion of migrants & refugees into Irish schools & wider society
  • Facilitate participation of migrants in sport, volunteering and cultural activities
  • Promote gender equality in sport and society
  • Introduce children to the concept of Human Rights
  • Advocate for the inclusion of EDI education in the national curriculum

Project content

SARI coaches, both male and female from diverse ethnic backgrounds, visit schools across Ireland to deliver an Anti-discrimination workshop to students. This workshop addresses issues including racism, homophobia, sexism and disability.

Partners

The Fair Play Accelerator – bridging the social gap through Fair Play

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Czech Republic, Pilsen, Usti nad Labem, Liberec, Karlovy Vary and Olomouc
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2026
Cost of the project €219,198
Foundation funding €57,500
Project identifier 2024001076
Partners Fair Play Point
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Most of the estimated 250,000 Roma who live in Czechia are excluded from Czech society. Many live in segregated neighbourhoods a long way from sports facilities, or even safe places where they could play sport informally. In addition, they are often in precarious financial situations, meaning that the cost of transport, sportswear and club or lesson fees makes participating in sport impossible for them. They are also victims of educational inequality because schools are segregated, and as a result, most young people from Roma communities end up in a vicious circle of deprivation and face discrimination.

Project goals

  • Increase social cohesion among Roma young people and boost their sense of belonging and achievement
  • Address educational disparities in disadvantaged regions of Czechia
  • Cultivate fair play values and self-development through football
  • Connecting 50 youth clubs, social centers and other educational institutions in creating a holisitc after-school intervention.

Project content

  • Six regional fair play initiatives combining sport with social and educational activities for 300 children per month (September to July)
  • Two national days dedicated to fair play for all the participating children, youth workers and partners (July)
  • Two national fair play weekend camps for 60 children and youth workers (September)
  • Training programme for 30 youth leaders

Partners

Game with Mum & Dad

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Europe, Latin America and Caribbean
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 12/31/2025
Cost of the project €599,000
Foundation funding €100,000
Project identifier 2024001152
Partners Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE)
Categories Gender Equality - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

More than 20 million children worldwide (2.1 million in Europe; 3.5 million in Latin America and Caribbean) are separated from an imprisoned parent, an experience that often causes children overwhelming sadness, grief and anxiety, in addition to the pains of stigmatisation and shame. There are few programmes structurally embedded within prisons that support children with imprisoned parents. Their rights and best interests deserve much greater attention from governments and society at large.

Project goals

GWMD uses football as an instrument for awareness-raising and societal progress with three main objectives:

  • To defend the rights and best interests of a particularly vulnerable population representing more than 1% of the world child population.
  • To support children's wellbeing by strengthening the child-parent bond imperilled by a parent’s detention.
  • To foster inclusion and empower children, despite the existence of prison walls and by working with prison authorities.

 

Project content

GWMD supports the all-important child-parent bond by bringing families together for a day of play, hugs and laughs. It builds on a model first developed in Italy and recently broadened in 2023 and 2024 to 10 other European nations as well as India. In 2025 we plan to expand to Argentina, Chile, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, for a total of 21 countries. We apply the same methodology everywhere to ensure that child rights, child participation and child safeguarding remain paramount.

Partners

Life Champions 3.0: Every child has a right to be a life champion!

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Serbia, Belgrade and other cities in the region
Start date 12/01/2024
End date 11/30/2025
Cost of the project €268,500
Foundation funding €120,000
Project identifier 2024000105
Partners Development Center for Youth
Categories Access to Sport - Environmental protection - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Knowing that every child is a champion, we have directly communicated the Life Champions concept and values to more than 5,000 children and young adults throughout the Belgrade region, with priority given to sensitive target groups such as children from deprived areas and girls in sport. However, we are aware that many children are not addressed directly and therefore do not get the message, in particular children in the social welfare system (children without parental care). There are 32 institutions for such children in Serbia alone, housing 145,000 children, all of whom deserve the opportunity to become life champions.

Project goals

Overall goal: to better integrate children in the social welfare system in the Life Champions sporting and educational activities.

Specific targets

  • Adjust the training already developed to the needs and realities of this particular target group to equip 30 coaches from the Life Champions network to work with children in social welfare institutions
  • Pilot the adjusted training through four months of Life Champions activities with at least 300 children from six different institutions (48 sessions)
  • Organise sporting and educational camps for at least 720 children from social welfare institutions to support their social and personal development
  • Reach 3,000,000 people with a media campaign
  • Formulate recommendations on the further use of sport in work with children living in institutions, and empower institutions themselves to use sport and a collaborative approach to multiply the opportunities available to the children in their care

Project content

Life Champions 3.0 is envisaged as a 12-month partnership between the Development Center for Youth (project coordinator), the DEKI 5 football camp and AP Brera Strumica, a Macedonian football club based in Strumica. The initiative aims to break down barriers and foster an inclusive environment where all children can enjoy and learn from sport.

The basic Life Champions concept remains the same: using sport to support children’s upbringing and education. Tailored training will give Life Champions coaches the information, knowledge and skills they need to properly support and engage children in the social welfare system in sporting and educational activities.

The project will include different types of activity – open football days, training and mentoring, and sporting and educational camps – all with the aim of better including children living in institutional settings in the Life Champions concept, giving them additional knowledge and skills and supporting their social and personal development.

To achieve sustainable results will require partnerships with football clubs and other non-governmental organisations involved in education through sport, and resources to ensure that both the children themselves and the coaches working with them can thrive and achieve mutual growth and development.

Partners

Campo do Sancho

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Brazil, Recife, Pernambuco
Start date 04/01/2024
End date 08/31/2025
Cost of the project €114,575
Foundation funding €80,000
Project identifier 20230618
Partners love.fútbol
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

In Brazil, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2020), 47% of the public schools have no sports infrastructure and 78% (2019) of the children and 84% of teenagers do less exercise than what is recommended by WHO.

Project goals

The project will take place in Sancho, a community that represents the reality of the lack of play spaces and quality education in northeastern Brazil.

  • Use love.fútbol's award-winning methodology and 16 years of experience developing community-driven sports spaces to create a football facility in an underserved community
  • Engage the local community and enable it to build and take ownership of this space as a platform dedicated to sports, and education
  • Deliver bi-weekly ‘sports for education’ sessions to 60 children
  • Partner with the city hall and the local organisation Cores do Amanhã to keep the space safe and provide a daily schedule

Project content

love.fútbol will promote a cross-sector partnership between Recife city hall, local grassroots non-profit organisation Cores do Amanhã, and a broader range of community leaders, groups, businesses, and organisations to plan, refurbish and reactivate a historic football pitch that will serve as a sustainable platform for sports and educational sessions, a point of integration between various sectors of the community, and a reference for municipal, state and regional public policy. The ‘Campo do Sancho’ will be more than a place to play, but a local hub for education, social coexistence and peace.

Partner

Fun Football in Nigeria

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Anambra, Kaduna, Benue and Kano (Nigeria)
Start date 01/01/2024
End date 03/31/2025
Cost of the project €200,000
Foundation funding €100,000
Project identifier 20230056
Partners Cross Cultures Project Association
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Employability - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Nigeria has a population of nearly 224 million, of which 63% are 24 years old or younger. Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria has faced almost constant conflict between the two major religions, between different ethnic groups and between pastoralists and farmers. This fighting has resulted in millions of deaths and unquantifiable social and material damage. In 2023, approximately 9.3 million people required emergency humanitarian assistance and nearly 3 million remained internally displaced. Women and children are particularly vulnerable: UNICEF estimates that six out of ten children in Nigeria experience some form of violence daily and nearly 20 million do not attend school, which puts them at an increased risk of violence, crime, child labour, poverty and recruitment by militias. In the northern regions, only 44% of girls receive primary education, and 48% marry before the age of 15. Moreover, unemployment among Nigerians aged 15–24 reached almost 53.4% in 2021. Nigeria is also highly susceptible to climate-change-related disasters such as floods and droughts, which exacerbate the humanitarian crises, conflict and poverty.

Project goals

Overall objective:

To promote peaceful coexistence, youth empowerment and child protection in Nigeria.

Specific goals:

  • To empower unemployed individuals with the skills and networks to promote peaceful coexistence, cooperation and social cohesion through Fun Football activities, while also enhancing their own resilience and opportunities to earn a living in grassroots sport or physical education.
  • To enhance child protection in conflict-sensitive areas with a focus on the most vulnerable, notably unschooled and internally displaced children.
  • To incorporate Fun Football into the curricula of primary schools in vulnerable communities as a means of promoting children's wellbeing and development and reducing the number of drop-outs.

Project content

Fun Football unites people across social divisions by helping them to find common ground around their passion for football and their hopes for their children's development and future. It also fosters children's social and psychological development by providing them with safe spaces to play, positive role models, new friendships, life skills and psychosocial support. Sport has been shown to play an effective role in keeping children in school since it promotes their social skills, mental well-being and self-confidence, all of which contribute to increased motivation and performance. Cross Cultures' Fun Football programme consists of three main activities:

  • Training for young leaders and coaches

Cross Cultures trains unemployed former footballers and women who are not in employment, education or training in action learning methods and the child-centred Fun Football philosophy so that they can take control of their lives and become more involved in their communities as volunteer leaders and coaches.

  • Open Fun Football Schools, Fun Festivals and other Fun Football activities

Children are given the opportunity to experience Fun Football with children from different backgrounds in a safe and peaceful environment characterised by friendship, non-violence, child protection and gender equality. The activities are led by the volunteer coaches and leaders.

  • Cross-sectoral cooperation:

The project works with 20 primary schools committed to introducing the concept of Fun Football. Cross Cultures aims to train 80 physical education teachers and coaches who will, in turn, train 5,000 participating students.

Partner

Football for all children

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bihać
Start date 01/01/2024
End date 12/31/2024
Cost of the project €146,343
Foundation funding €39,100
Project identifier 20230933
Partners Bihać youth football club (OFK Bihać)
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Local development strategies set out the need to provide access to sport for children and teenagers, train professional staff and improve sports facilities, especially for vulnerable and marginalised social groups.

Project goals

The project aims to provide inclusive access to sport for all children in local communities, including those in marginalised population groups, facilitate social interaction and remove stigma through football, promoting team spirit and equality among peers. By improving infrastructure, the project will enhance the capacities of OFK Bihać and long-term sustainability prospects for the benefit of the entire community.

Project content

The Prekounje sports centre that the project seeks to develop is located on the right bank of the Una river that runs through Bihać, in and adjacent to communities with about 17,000 citizens, incl. about 5,400 children of all ages, including the largest Roma community.

The sports centre will significantly improve access and opportunities for all children, in their neighbourhood, at walking distance from their homes. Additionally, the upgraded infrastructure will provide opportunities to increase the diversity and number of activities by over 60%, finally allowing evening/night activities and tournaments in a modern, safe environment for all children.

  • Inclusive football school: One year of free football practice, at least twice a week, with UEFA-licensed coaches, for boys and girls in marginalised population groups, together with peers from other communities, in mixed (ethnicity, gender, etc.) teams.
  • Enhancing facilities at the Prekounje sports centre: Modernising and upgrading the existing football pitch (100mx64m) and building a new artificial pitch (40mx20m).

Partner