Five major International Sports Federations join the Peace and Sport family at Sportaccord 2009

From Sportaccord 2009, the international organisation Peace and Sport announces the signing of Global Agreements with five major International Sports Federations (IF) to implement joint development programmes for education through sport all over the world :

• The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The first joint programmes called "Ping Pong Paz" (Peace through Ping Pong) are planned in Colombia, with the non-governmental organisation “Colombianitos”, the Colombian Table Tennis Association, and the table tennis manufacturer Butterfly. Future projects in East Timor and a project in Palm Island, Australia through the Cathy Freeman Foundation are currently being discussed.
• The World Chess Federation (FIDE) will encourage peace-promotion events and provide equipment and training for the Youth Centres Peace and Sport supports.
• The International University Sports Federation (FISU) will support Peace and Sport in its awareness raising campaigns among students, who are the decision-makers of tomorrow.
• The International Military Sports Council (CISM) will develop joint peace-building operations for demobilised child soldiers.
• The International Rugby Board (IRB) has joined forces with Peace and Sport to deliver peace-building education programmes through Rugby in several countries.

These partnerships strengthen Peace and Sport’s intervention capacity in the field by offering the International Federations’ support, technical resources, personnel and expertise to aid concrete action for the social reinsertion of thousands of young people in distress.

Joel Bouzou declared:
“We are most proud to have received such positive feedback from the International Federations here at Sportaccord. All, without exception, showed their desire to contribute to the promotion of peace through sport worldwide alongside our organisation. We hope to announce very shortly that more IFs [International Federations] will soon join the Peace and Sport family, strengthening our activity at a grassroots level as a result. These partnerships will make a true difference for street children, demobilised child soldiers and war orphans in deprived regions of the world”.

With the involvement of their national federations, the new members of the Peace and Sport family will provide equipment and coaches for programmes implemented through Peace and Sport’s Locally-Based Projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, Israel-Palestine, Colombia, and Timor Leste. Additional new projects in vulnerable zones are to be announced soon.


[This article has been edited by the Operating Team]