FutbolNet Festival with Barça Foundation & SNF
The Barça Foundation, with support from Stavros Niarchos Foundation, hosted a “FutbolNet Festival” which brought together 300 children and youth from the Skaramagas and Eleonas refugee camps in Greece and Athens public schools for an exciting day of sports activities and entertainment.
The festival took place at the Kallithea Football Club which was arranged by the Organisation of Child Education and Sports “Giannis Gallos” and focused on the values of the game: only winners, no losers, the only rival is social exclusion.
The participants are enrolled in a year-long programme that uses sport and the FC Barcelona values, through the FutbolNet methodology, to teach life skills, promote physical and emotional wellbeing, and foster cohesion among refugees and local communities. The programme, which uses the Barça Foundation’s FutbolNet methodology, reaches more than 3,000 children in refugee sites in Lebanon, Italy, and Greece. The programme includes both local and refugee children and promotes social inclusion and productive conflict resolution.
Barça Foundation partners with organisations and individuals living and working in the local communities it serves. Trainers from the Foundation travel to the local partner organisations, in this case, Organisation Earth and Praksis, to teach the methodology through hands-on workshops. FutbolNet is essentially an idea built on expertise and by conducting the training, Barça Foundation can multiply their potential impact far beyond what could be achieved if the programme was implemented only by their own coaches.
About the FutbolNet methodology:
The FutbolNet methodology was developed by the Barça Foundation in 2011, and uses sports to bring together young people who live in refugee-hosting centres with children from the local communities. The aim of the program is to improve the daily lives of young people facing difficult living conditions, to strengthen their mental and emotional health, and to promote social inclusion and their integration into local host communities. With the support of the SNF, the Barça Foundation extendeds the FutbolNet program, with a positive impact for the lives of more than 3,000 children living in refugee-hosting centers in Lebanon, Italy, and Greece. Furthermore, the SNF has supported the procurement of sports equipment for FC Barcelona’s Innovation Hub, for refugee-hosting centers.
Aris Limassol FC Social, Environmental, and Health Initiatives
