ACTION DAY – Refugees and Social Inclusion
On 30 March we ask all clubs, leagues and FAs to showcase their Refugee and/or Social inclusion initiatives. Down below, you find some examples of different projects concerning these topics.
Ukraine – All help is welcome
Polish football club Legia Warsaw, together with their charitable arm Legia Foundation has already offered their stadium as a collection and distribution centre for these priority items. From there, Shakthar Donetsk will arrange for the items to be delivered to the Lviv Stadium. EFDN will act as coordinator for all clubs, leagues, FAs and fan groups that are willing to support this initiative.
Organisations that want to participate can contact EFDN at helpukraine@efdn.org to register their initiative and can then start immediately organising collections, or fundraising and purchasing priority items. To manage the flow of all materials in good order, please contact EFDN before you ship your items to the Stadium of Legia Warsaw.
SL Benfica
Benfica makes a difference: a new face among the Inspiradoras. The women’s football team was joined by the captain of the Afghanistan national team.
“I want to say, first of all, that I am grateful for Portugal and all that the country has done. But I also want to tell others to take the same leadership and support Afghanistan, the women and the vulnerable children as well. You may not change the world but you can change the world for one person. So that is a very meaningful thing to do”
Farkhunda Muhtaj – Captain of the Afghanistan national women’s team
Big Hearts
Their project is based on a range of activities promoting the quality of youth work, the intercultural dialogue and aims to strengthen knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society. After running two 12-week rounds of activities, a new group started at Tynecastle Park on 23rd March 2022.
Along with developing effective methods in reaching out to refugee, migrants and asylums seekers communities, the project aims to develop a Practitioners Guide to be widely used by any interested organisations and sport clubs across Europe.
Everton in the Community
Moving to a new country and/or city can present many complex challenges for refugees and asylum seekers as they attempt to adapt to living in a new and unfamiliar environment whilst learning a new language and attempting to integrate into mainstream society.
The charity’s new programme is specifically available for female refugees and asylum seekers who often face issues surrounding faith, migration and gender and can suffer social inequalities in many aspects of their lives, including widespread exclusion from the mainstream sport. Everton in the Community’s ‘Welcome Through Football’ programme aims to overcome these barriers – which prevent accessibility to sport – by providing a culturally sensitive kit, staff, and a suitable environment for women to participate in regular football training sessions and competitions.
The programme promotes social inclusion and celebrates cultural diversity through the vehicle of football whilst supporting female refugees and asylum seekers to settle in their communities, make new friends and learn valuable life skills.
AEK Athens
AEK Athens is a precursor when it comes to Refugee programmes. An interesting fact is that the club was founded in 1922 by Greeks who had fled from Turkey to Athens. Beautiful to see that helping refugees is still one of their most important club values.
Last year, during a drawing workshop, children portrayed what sport and football meant to them, as well as their feelings about participating in AEK FC’s programme. As they busily worked, the children used their vivid imagination, combined with their dreams about the future, to prepare colourful drawings as they designed a football for the #dreamball design contest.
The children’s eyes shined brightly when they heard that their drawings could be one of the five in the global contest that will be turned into real footballs by UNHCR, to be stitched in Kenya by refugees and other workers at Alive and Kicking, an ethical manufacturing company. The winning balls will be sold online to support sporting activities for refugees.
MFC Foundation
MFC Foundation have teamed up with the Methodist Asylum Project (MAP) and the North Riding FA to deliver a three-year pilot project funded through Amnesty International aiming to create more welcoming communities for refugees and those seeking asylum in the local area.
The Football Welcomes initiative will see the Foundation offer football and educational provision for those who have sought asylum in Middlesbrough as a result of fleeing war, conflict and the risk of persecution in their home countries.
The participants are from all over the world: Iran, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine and many more. At Football Welcomes, they will get the chance to work together as a team, to develop skills, and remember the fun and sense of belonging which team membership gives.
WELCOME THROUGH FOOTBALL
Welcome Through Football is an EFDN initiative. Current projects across Europe receive funding from the Eramus+ programme of the European Union and the UEFA Foundation for Children.
The Welcome Through Football 2022 project aims to assist in the integration and inclusion of recently arrived young refugees, asylum seekers and young people with a migrant background. EFDN and partners will develop and test a European methodology that uses football as a tool to reach refugees and migrants from different ages (7-25 years old) to get them physically and social active in European communities.
Moreover, the project assists football coaches and youth workers in the development and sharing of effective methods in reaching out to the marginalised target group, in preventing racism and intolerance.
The three main pillars of the projects are:
- Socialisation to sports – providing different football offerings for young refugees of both genders related to their specific requirements such as language skills or the possibility of trauma.
- Socialisation in sports – working on team structure, giving more responsibility to the participants and offering additional steps out with the sports training sessions.
- Socialisation through sports – Focusing on the skills the participants learn from taking part in the available offers so that they qualify for further education in and outside of sports.
How can your club contribute?
- Launch campaign for Welcome Through Football
- Hosting webinars/online meetings to share resources
- Sending Welcome Through Football resources to community organisations
- Highlight projects that support Refugee Aid and Social Inclusion in your community
- Wherever possible, create social media content (photos/videos) with beneficiaries of the Refugee and Social Inclusion programmes
Please use #Morethanfootball and feel free to tag our #Morethanfootball social media accounts so we can share your posts and activities.
