Peace Games for football

Non Profit ID card: present your project/organisation/campaign

Questions answered by Layla Mousa, Peace Games and Uisp, Italian coordinator of the project Football for Development.

– Where are you based? We are based in Italy, with many local delegations.

– What are you called? Uisp – Italian Union of Sport for All; Peace Games Uisp – International Sport Cooperation.

– What are you doing and why? At present we work in Italy, in Europe and in Development Countries, such as Palestine, Bosnia, Western Sahara, Senegal, Lebanon, Chiapas and many other countries. Our mission consists of using sport as a social-educational mean, as a tool for integration and as a vehicle for communication and socialisation in conflicting and “at risk” contexts, by implementing sport activities in favour of weak people such as mental and physical disabled, elderly people, children and above all youths.

This year, in view of the Football World Cup in South Africa, we are promoting a campaign called “Toward South Africa 2010”, to create awareness about the anti-apartheid struggle in Africa and Italy, about a new kind of racism and about the problems of the region. The campaign goes through a variety of steps: organisation of a special award for the football player and the sport journalist who last year distinguished themselves for their antiracist attitude, struggling against sexual exploitation of girls during big sport events (together with the Mozambique association WLSA), showing of World Cup football match in Italy, accompanied by debates on apartheid and racism, using football as development instrument in rural areas of South Africa (together with the Dreamfields Project), organisation of a picture exhibition in South Africa with images of the fight against apartheid in Italy. This is also linked with the European project: Football for Development (see below).

– Do you have a website/email? www.uisp.it and www.peacegamesuisp.org

– Do you have a Twitter/facebook link/name? Yes, you can look for Uisp and Peace Games on Facebook.

– What makes you so special? The use of sport not just as an entertainment tool but as an educational and awareness instrument.

 

The turning point

– How did you start? We started as Uisp in 1948 to promote another idea of sport, different from the competitive idea of sport. Peace Games (which was initially called Ucsi) was created in 1990 by Uisp to address activities in development areas.

– What keeps you going every day? The feedback we receive from people with whom we work.

– Who is your target? We mainly address to the whole of the population, depending on specific projects. Many activities  address to young people, disadvantaged people and the sport world.

– How are you financed? It depends: local authorities, ministers, the European Commission, associate fees…

 

The challenge

– A proud moment? Every time a person says us “thank you”.

– A problem you face? Many ideas and too little money to realise them!

– Your personal motto when things get hard? “No panic!”

– Another cool project/organisation/campaign you would like to recommend?

The project I mentioned before, called “Football for Development” (www.footballfordevelopment.net). It is founded by the European Commission, and it is organised by Uisp together with VIDC (Austria, as applicant), with INEX-SDA (Czech Republic) and with the Mahatma Gandhi Human Right Organization (Hungary), with the participation of several African organisations: the aim of this project is to explore potentialities of football as a development instrument. It foresees activities in schools, stadiums, football fan zones for South Africa 2010, football tournaments, conferences and workshops.

In this context a workshop for journalists has been organised in Rome, on the issues of the project and of the campaign.

 

www.uisp.it

www.peacegamesuisp.org

www.footballfordevelopment.net

 

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