The Embassy of Italy in Uganda has promoted a 2-day football training/tournament in Arua (West Nile), with coaches from the Italian first league (Serie A) team Sampdoria, open to youth coming from both refugee settlements and local communities.
The event was organized in collaboration with the Italian NGO ACAV, theFederation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA), Sampdoria F.C., the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) and the Office of the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The initiative took place on 17 and 18 May 2019 at Mvara Secondary School and brought together over 140 youths, between the age of 13 and 16, from Bidi Bidi, Lobule, Imvepi and Rhino refugee settlements, as well as from the respective districts (Yumbe, Koboko and Arua).
Activities included:
– football trainings and a tournament, coordinated by professional Italian coaches from Sampdoria and FUFA;
– sport management courses, coordinated by ACAV, FUFA, Sampdoria and UOC.
We were joyful to see youths from local communities and refugee settlements, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Uganda, uniting enthusiastically in the name of sport.
The tournament’s final match as well as the event’s closing ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of Italy, H.E. Domenico Fornara, and the Minister of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees of the Republic of Uganda, Hon. Hilary Onek, who officiated as chief guest.
The project applies sports to enhance social cohesion, rehabilitation and restoration to normality in favor of youth residing in the refugee settlements and host communities in the West Nile Region.
On the occasion of the event, a 3-year sport-education program was launched to favor youth refugees and their host communities. This longerterm project, to which also the International Olympic Committee and TO.org are partners, aims at educating the youth on Olympic values, creating training programs, as well as coaching and sports management courses. The organizing committee will also fundraise to construct sport infrastructures, which will serve both refugees and the receiving communities in a spirit of integration and inclusion.
Links:
– photo album
– Media
– Rai TG3
– AISE
