UNICEF launches website on sport and child development

UNICEF has spent more than 60 years advocating for children’s rights, which means a lot of experience with sport and the right of play for children.

Team UNICEF
Team UNICEF is a new website to feature the many activities, events and processes UNICEF has in place to promote sport and the right of play, together with a spirit of collaboration, teamwork and energy that sport evokes.

• Visit the Team UNICEF site for more information

Team UNICEF has initiated and supported a wide range of projects designed to help children across the world through sport and play. The following programmes are highlighted examples.

Vamos Jogar
‘Vamos Jogar’ is an initiative led by UNICEF and promoted by the City of Rio de Janeiro fostering the right to safe and inclusive sports, recreation and play for all children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The aim of ‘Vamos Jogar’ is that individuals and organisations assume their part of the shared responsibility to guarantee children’s right to play, which includes ensuring the availability of adequate resources, the implementation of public policies for this purpose, and the opening of parks, sports fields and other public spaces in each municipality and community in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Visit the Vamos Jogar site for more information

Known as ‘Galz & Goals’, the programme in Windhoek, Namibia, uses sport as a platform to promote individual health and social responsibility. It aims to empower girls and young women to achieve their goals.

The project benefits thousands of young girls in primary and secondary schools across the country. As part of this partnership a curriculum is being developed for teachers, coaches and parents in communicating and teaching information on HIV/AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse and gender discrimination.

• Visit the Galz & Goals site for more information

The ultimate goal of the four-year programme is to work together with more than 1000 primary schools in Mozambique, Kenya and Ghana to improve the living conditions of over 700,000 children. This is done in three ways:

1. Local partners help schools to lay water pipes, install drinking water points and build toilet facilities
2. Coaches train boys and girls in life skills for a healthy living through football training
3. Football for Water creates links between the schools, the kids and their families and local companies to make sure the entire community will benefit from the programme.

• Visit the Football for Water site for more information