AISTS wins the Peace and Sport Special Jury Award for 2016
[This article was written by AISTS and edited by the sportanddev.org Operating Team.]
Created in 2008, the annual Peace and Sport Awards reward organisations and individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to peace, dialogue and social stability in the world through sport.
The Special Jury Prize of the Year is dedicated to a peace through sport project that has occurred throughout the year and has made a significant positive impact. The other nominees for the award were the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) for their World Table Tennis Day event and the Rugby Without Borders Foundation for their 'I Respect' campaign.
AISTS won the award for our 'From Refugee Camp to Rio' project which was initiated in January this year by Erin Hayba and Alex Buisse. AISTS joined the project in May to provide linkage to international sports networks and provide individual and financial support. The purpose of the project was to share the broader stories relating to refugees and sport to the international sports community and also highlight the opportunities of using sport for peace building. To do this in-depth coverage of the daily lives of refugee athletes through images, personal testimonies and indepth background stories were collected, ultimately following some of them all the way to their historical participation at Rio Olympic Games.
One remarkable story, out of the many collected, is that of Rebecca Nymal Nyang. A 24-year-old, South Sudanese woman living in the largest Refugee Camp in Kenya, who is going against traditions and in training to be an Olympic athlete and a journalist.
Rebecca was in training with the refugee team at the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation in Ngong, just outside Nairobi, for the 400m. Strong traditions within the Sudanese culture dictate that being an athlete or pursuing an education are opportunities set aside for men, and not for women. Rebecca however has chosen to take on both challenges. She did not attend the Games, but as part of her ongoing education, Erin and Alex have hired Rebecca as an intern in the ‘From Refugee Camp to Rio’ project. This 6 month internship, supported by AISTS, will help Rebecca fine tune her journalism skills through interviews with the athletes training in Ngong. She will serve as a guide, interpreter, transcriber and take additional photos in the Kakuma refugee camp and work closely with Erin and Alex.
A ‘From Refugee Camp to Rio’ photo exhibition of Alex Buisse’s remarkable work along with a printed publication are being developed to further support this projects activities.
For more information, please contact Liz Fulton, marketing and communications coordinator, on +41 (0) 21 353 03 92 or at [email protected].
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