PSG Foundation raise disability awareness

PSG Foundation raise disability awareness

PSG Foundation held an event to raise awareness about disability at the Red & Blue School in the 19th arrondissement.

On the 14th of March, around 30 children from Paris Saint-Germain’s Red & Blue School took part in their first “Olympiades Inclusives” alongside 12 youngsters from the Institut Le Val Mandé, a public medico-welfare establishment that supports disabled children. The two groups of youngsters took part in a series of small sporting challenges together over the course of this special day, the aim of which was to raise awareness about disability and integration through sport. Plenty of fun sporting activities were on the agenda, such as archery, football bowling and a penalty shoot-out. They also enjoyed an afternoon snack during the event’s closing ceremony and prizegiving.

This season, Paris Saint-Germain, through Children First, are organising a special series of events to support people with disabilities. Sabrina Delannoy, Deputy Manager of the Paris Saint-Germain Foundation, said: “This season, we have made it our priority to organise events that help young disabled people to socialise, flourish and develop their potential. We are delighted about how successful this day has been. The children from the Red & Blue School and their friends from the Institut Le Val Mandé demonstrated faultless team spirit. This event is the first in a series of operations that will be rolled out throughout the year to continue raising awareness in the children that we help through our various programmes.”

About Children First

The PSG Foundation was founded in 2000 and was the first corporate foundation to be created by a French sports club. It provides support for vulnerable or sick children, young people and disadvantaged communities. When Nasser Al Khelaifi took over as president of the Foundation in 2012, he enabled it to step up its work and an endowment fund was created to receive donations. Over the last 19 years, more than 220,000 children and young adults have benefitted from the programmes set up by the Foundation and/or the Paris Saint-Germain endowment fund. Today, the endowment fund and the Foundation have been brought together under one name, Children First.

The Foundation runs educational and sporting programmes in France and abroad, using sport and its values to help youngsters to learn, blossom and become upstanding members of the community.

PSG Foundation’s main missions:

• To bring comfort to sick children: The three professional teams’ eagerly-awaited visits to hospitals in the greater Paris region provide a ray of sunshine in these children’s lives, as do the invitations to come and meet the players at the stadium and training centre.
• To reach out to underprivileged children: Their instructors work at ground level, taking part in targeted programmes: “Go Girls!”, “Children’s Day” and “PSG Holidays”. The Red & Blue School project, an innovative after-school programme that combines sporting, educational and cultural activities, helps the children to flourish and succeed at school.
• To accompany young people in their social and professional integration: More than 300 educators have come through these programmes.
• To provide support to people in difficulty: PSG Foundation have joined forces with charities such as the Secours Populaire and NGOs such as Action Contre la Faim to help disadvantaged populations in France and worldwide.

Ambassadors of these values, all of Paris Saint-Germain’s players actively support the Foundation’s actions. Thanks to sport and their teams’ commitment, the PSG Foundation is able to treat the children they support all year round to some magical experiences.