March 6 – It may not carry the same clout as the Champions League or be as newsworthy as financial fair play or VAR but UEFA is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its Foundation for Children, using football as a tool to aid vulnerable kids, particularly in less-privileged parts of the world.
An address at last week’s UEFA Congress, by the Foundation’s general secretary Urs Kluser gave an insightful overview of how far the body has come since being set up five years ago.
Grants have now been provided, said Kluser, for almost 250 projects in 100 countries in five Continents including at a refugee camp in the middle of the Jordanian desert where some 6,000 children now practise sport.
“Altogether a million children with disadvantaged backgrounds have benefitted from various projects with at least 35% being girls,” he said..
“Most of our projects are using sport, and football in particular, to help defend children from precarious backgrounds. To help them feel like any other children…improve their chances of joining the workforce and reduce the risk of falling prey to drugs , crime or extremism.”
Facilitating actual meetings with some of football’s superstar players has “changed lives”, said Kluser who added: “We must continue to defend the rights of children through football. It gives them the opportunity to play and forget about their problems.”
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