First stage of Welcome through Football project at Shakhtar has ended

First stage of Welcome through Football project at Shakhtar has ended

The first stage of the Welcome through Football project for displaced children at FC Shakhtar has come to an end. From 10 October to 27 December, 35 children aged 11 to 13 participated in free soccer training under the guidance of professionals twice a week. The main task is to help children who are in difficult living conditions to settle in a new place with the help of the language of soccer.

The project participants also had an open training session with the participation of the first team players Anatolii Trubin and Valerii Bondar, a friendly match vs VulKan Youth Sports Club, and a football freestyle performance. At the last training session before the holidays, Shakhtar players collected New Year gifts for displaced children. In previous years, Shakhtar invited displaced children to one of the last trainings and congratulated them on the upcoming holidays directly at the Sviatoshyn sports complex. Now this action was carried out remotely due to quarantine restrictions. Before the winter vacations, on St. Nicholas Day, Shakhtar players personally collected New Year gifts for 40 participants of the Welcome through Football project. The sets included sweets, thermo mugs and scarves useful in the cold season.

The second stage of the project kicks off in early 2021. The goal of the project is to share experience and develop a football-based social inclusion methodology. The programme has been implemented by Shakhtar Social with the support of the European Football for Development Network (EFDN) and the UEFA Foundation for Children. Besides Shakhtar, the project involves six more European football clubs: SL Benfica (Portugal), Werder Bremen (Germany), Everton FC, Sheffield United (both from England), FC Emmen (Netherlands) and Apollon Limassol FC (Cyprus).