Today we celebrate World Humanitarian Day

On August 19th 2009, the United Nations General Assembly honored this day as World Humanitarian Day to recognize humanitarian staff and those who have lost their lives while working for humanitarian causes.

On 19 August 2003, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. After this event, the United Nations observes every 19 August in remembrance of the humanitarian workers who lost their lives.

Each year, WHD focuses on a theme, bringing together partners from across the humanitarian system to advocate for the survival, well-being and dignity of people affected by crises, and for the safety and security of aid workers. Most people on the front lines of humanitarian crises come from affected communities, joined by local and national authorities, civil society organizations, faith-based groups, businesses and many more offering their time and skills to help their neighbours.

The 2022 WHD campaign shines a light on the thousands of volunteers, professionals and crisis-affected people who deliver urgent health care, shelter, food, protection, water and much more.With record-high humanitarian needs around the world, this year’s World Humanitarian Day builds on this metaphor of collective endeavour to grow global appreciation of humanitarian work.

EFDN has launched several projects and organized programs related to people and children affected by the current situations in their countries. These projects and programs are meant to bring participants from various backgrounds together in community activities in order to explore new cultures and respect each others.

WELCOME THROUGH FOOTBALL

Welcome Through Football is a project initiated by EFDN where current projects across Europe receive funding from the Eramus+ programme of the European Union and the UEFA Foundation for Children. 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 Welcome Through Football 2021 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.

Welcome Through Football project consists of the following 3 step process:

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.

FOOTBALL FOR UNITY

In 2018, the EU was home to 22.3 million third-country nationals accounting for 4.4% of the total population. Factors such as cultural differences, language barriers and social stigma can make it particularly challenging for these young people to integrate into their new societies. The increase in migratory flows has reinforced the need to promote active participation of third-country national youth in all aspects of community and societal life. At the same time, members of host communities in Europe need a deeper understanding of the diversity that exists across the continent.

To address these challenges, The UEFA Foundation for Children, with the coordination of streetfootballworld and the support of The European Football for Development Network, have teamed up to launch ‘Football for UNITY’, a project co-funded by the European Union. Football for UNITY will utilise the international platform of the UEFA EURO 2020 to promote a positive image of migration and help create strong incentives that will lead to a more constructive discourse on migration within European host communities.

During the 20-month project period, ‘Football for UNITY’ the local stakeholders within the “Football for UNITY” project were in charge if planning, organising and implementing seven awareness-raising festivals in parallel to the UEFA EURO 2020. These events took place in seven host cities of the tournament with a great focus on the topic of the social inclusion of third-country nationals. The main goal of the project is to bring together third-country nationals and young people from host communities in Europe to participate in a series of forums and football for inclusion tournaments that will demonstrate football’s unique position to promote equality and social inclusion as European values.

STEP4YOUTH

The objective of STEP4youth is to design, test and evaluate a new sport-based intervention that introduces and improves employability, knowledge, skills and networks in order to foster the social inclusion of refugee and migrant youth (including unaccompanied minors and youth at highest risk) in Europe. This new Programme will focus on soft skills valued by employers, such as commitment, motivation, teamwork, flexibility, leadership, time-management or creativity and problem-solving to name a few. Working and strengthening these skills will allow a group of 180 refugees and migrant youth from Spain, Greece and Italy to be better equipped when entering the labour market.

Having a job is crucial for their independence and self-reliance and facilitates their social inclusion and integration in Europe. The programme, inspired by the best European practices linking sport and social inclusion, will be delivered by a pool of 90 educators and coaches trained in the new methodology. Furthermore, the project will connect refugees and migrants with a group of 15 companies through the so-called BRIDGE events, an ideal platform for employers to seek new talents duly trained by the Programmes’ methodology. .

The project is led by our member Barça Foundation, partnering with Organization Earth, Prospettiva Cooperative, the Danish Refugee Council and EFDN.