20.03.2006
On 30 March, in partnership with the British Council and the Israel Sports Authority, the University of Brighton on its Eastbourne campus are hosting the third annual training and planning event for the Football 4 Peace project.
Football 4 Peace involves student volunteers from the UK universities travelling to Israel to coach football to mixed groups of Arab and Jewish children to help to build bridges between their divided communities.
For the training event Arab and Jewish community sport leaders from Israel will join with volunteer coaches from universities in England, Northern Ireland and Germany to participate in adventurous team building activities, football coaching sessions and planning meetings.
The training event is designed to prepare them for the main project in Northern Israel during the summer which will require them to work in 11 linked projects, involving more than a thousand children, from 22 Arab and Jewish communities in the Galilee region. As project co-founder, Gary Stidder explains:
"The whole idea is to bring these communities together, get children playing on the same team to develop the key principals of trust, respect, equity, responsibility and neutrality under the broad heading of fair play and sportsmanship."
Football 4 Peace which is now in its 6th year is endorsed and supported by The Football Association. Jane Bateman, the FA's head of International Relations, said:
"The FA is supportive of initiatives such as this which show how football can be used as a vehicle to bring people and communities together. Football 4 Peace reflects The FA's own vision of using the power of football to build a better future and we wish this project every success".
Contact Information
The training event is March 30 to April 3, and will be held at Chelsea School Sports centre, University of Brighton, Denton Road, Eastbourne, Sussex, BN20 7SR
For more information please contact:
Press Officer: Andy Verspeak, 07734
366339, a.verspeak@brighton.ac.uk
Project
Leader: Gary Stidder, 01273
643778, g.stidder@brighton.ac.uk
Project
Leader: John Sugden, 01273
643729, j.sugden@brighton.ac.uk
Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
