World Refugee Day
Today, on World Refugee Day, we commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees. In recent years, football clubs in Europe have supported refugees through sustainable football based social inclusion programmes.
Together with their stakeholders and cooperation partners, football clubs are contributing to the integration of refugees in European communities and supporting other organisations such as UNHCR, UNICEF and the international Red Cross to deliver sport activities in refugee camps outside of Europe.
Some good practices are the Vitesse Works programme of Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands, PAOK Action in Thessaloniki in Greece, Everon in the Community in the UK and the work of our German EFDN members together with the Social Football Alliance.
Vitesse Arnhem – Vitesse works
‘Vitesse Works!’ aims to prepare participants for a paid job or study through a football programme. The latest edition was especially for Eritrean men aged between 18 and 40.
The participants of the ‘Vitesse Works!’ programme trained twice a week for a year on the fields of the amateur football club MASV. Football is the perfect tool for this target group to learn the Dutch language and participate in the Dutch society. Through football, the participants learned new life skills and employability skills, for example, to work in a team, learn to win and to lose, communication skills, etc. Besides the football sessions, the participants received additional training to write good job applications, learned how to build a social network and to have a realistic self-image.
During the programme, Vitesse and Job-coaching company ‘Vision on Work’ started to place the participants in their own network. As a result, the participants attended more than ninety meetings and football training sessions this season.
PAOK Saloniki – PAOK Action
PAOK and their charity programme PAOK Action are helping people who survived the war and were forced to leave their homes together with their families in search of a better life thousands of miles away from their homeland.
On Tuesday, the 7th of March, the PAP, in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration, visited the refugee centre in Moores, Kilkis, where clothes and essentials were distributed to the refugees in need. Representatives of PAOK also presented gifts to adults and children and received a lot of smiles back! There are not enough photographs to describe the joy of the people who had the opportunity to distract themselves from their daily problems for a little bit and play football under the supervision of the veterans of PAOK Kiriakos Alexandridis, Stefanos Borbokis and Yannis Hadziantonyou.
Bayer Leverkusen, FC Schalke 04, Werder Bremen, 1. FSV Mainz 05 – Football Club Social Alliance
In cooperation with the Scort Foundation and the UNHCR, instructors of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, FC Schalke 04, 1. FSV Mainz 05 and Werder Bremen have been in Rwanda with the goal to coach women and men living in different refugee camps to become football coaches for children.
The participants of the training sessions are young adults who had to flee their home countries the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, due to war or political instability. Today, 100 people from different refugee camps have participated in the training courses to become coaches for children who are currently staying in the refugee camps in Rwanda. The new coaches will deliver a variety of sport activities in the refugee camps and provide the children with the opportunity to play in a secure environment.
Everton in the Community – ASYLUM SEEKERS & REFUGEE PROJECT
Established in 2015, the refugee project of Everton in the Community delivers high-quality football sessions to asylum seekers and refugees in partnership with Asylum Link Merseyside.
Over 200 individuals have benefited from the sessions which are supported by Former Everton player Pat Van Den Hauwe. There are a number of asylum seekers and refugees who have been relocated to Liverpool and are unfamiliar with the area and struggle with various issues, including language barriers. This project plays a key role in addressing alongside facilitating integration and creating a safe haven by offering a range of inclusive activities tailored to the individuals’ needs and interests. The project is funded by LEAP (Liverpool East Active Partnership) and offers two sessions every week.
LEAP is part of a physical activity and sports programme delivered by Liverpool City Council and financially supported by Sport England’s ‘community sports activation fund’. The aim is to encourage fundamental recreational activity on a regular basis and help Liverpool people to adopt a long-term healthier lifestyle. Delivered through core staff hours, this project is in partnership with the British Red Cross, Asylum Link and Refugee Action to support asylum seekers and refugees.
EFDN Online platform
On the EFDN Online Learning Platform, you can download several resources focussing on the integration of refugees, ranging from volunteering activities to employability programmes. One good example is the Handbook on Volunteering of Migrants in Sport Clubs and Organisations from the European Sport Inclusion Network
The handbook can be used as a guide for potential volunteers in sport with a migrant background or for local clubs and sport organisations interested in involving people from diverse backgrounds.
Vitesse Werkt!
