Welcome in Our Football Starts Again at The AZC Emmen

Welcome in Our Football Starts Again at The AZC Emmen

The project Welcome In Our Football started again on Monday, May 22nd. More than 25 children participated in the first training at the asylum seekers’ center in Emmen. During the next twelve weeks, football training is scheduled for the children at the AZC every Monday and Friday.

Kick-Off

On this warm Monday afternoon, the children at the AZC were able to get acquainted with the football training sessions organized by FC Emmen Naoberschap. During these training sessions, children learn to cooperate with each other through football. The participants consist of children from different countries and other cultures and each child brings their own life story. There are also children who have been participating in the training for a number of years. The AZC in Emmen has expanded considerably in recent years so that more children can participate in Welcome In Our Football. 

For the next twelve weeks, the training sessions will take place every Monday and Friday at the AZC. These are given by social football trainers from FC Emmen Naoberschap. Jorrit Scholing is one of these social trainers and is looking forward to the training sessions. “FC Emmen has been coming here at the AZC for a number of years, but it remains a special project. By offering the training courses, we can increase the range of activities at the AZC and the children learn important social characteristics such as working together,” says Scholing.

Seminar

Last March, FC Emmen Naoberschap and EFDN organized a Welcome In Our Football seminar. During the seminar, several international football clubs, which organize the same project in their own place, paid a working visit to the AZC in Emmen. The COA gave a presentation on asylum policy in the Netherlands, followed by a guided tour of the AZC complex.

About Welkom In Ons Voetbal

Since the summer of 2019, FC Emmen Naoberschap has started the project ‘Welkom In Ons Voetbal’ in collaboration with the asylum seekers’ center Emmen, with the aim of making young asylum seekers feel welcome in the Netherlands. The official (English) name of the project is Welcome Through Football.