Israel's Peres Centre for Peace and Innovation, which develops impactful programmes aimed at promoting shared living and lasting peace, is sending a Jewish and a Palestinian trainer with expertise in "sports for social change" to a FIFA football event in Haryana.
The Football Learning Global (FLG) International Diversity Festival, which is a part of the official FIFA World Cup Programme 2022, is scheduled to take place at the Youth Football Club in Rurka Kalan in Haryana, from November 12-18.
Leeon Boujo from Tel Aviv and Tala Jaber from the West Bank city of Jericho would be representing the Peres Centre at the event giving workshops and sharing the Centre's peace education methodologies with participants from all over the world.
"The theme of the festival is to share experiences with participants, which includes many Indian organisations, as to how football or even street football can serve as a tool for development, education and social change in plural societies with diversity of cultures and religions. I truly believe that sports can help build bridges and promote co-existence", Tala, 20, a student of English literature at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah told PTI.
"We at Peres Peace Center are working on a programme to bring together Jewish and Palestinian children across schools in Israel and the West Bank to play football together and to get to know each other better. It is the most popular sport in the region and has the potential to create cohesiveness", she added.
The Palestinian youngster has participated in the past in several peace programmes in the West Bank and recently started to work with the Peres Centre, founded by former Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate.
"Children, youth, young mentors and leaders, coaches, coordinators and decision makers from across the world and from all over India will meet, share experiences, transfer knowledge and learn with one another about the potential of football as a tool for development and change. The objective is to create more impact for a societal cohesion and contribute to equal opportunities for everyone - on a local, on a national and on a global level", said Leeon, 29, who heads the sports division at the Peres Center.
Leeon studied at Political Science and Gender Issues at Tel Aviv University and was part of Education and Youth Corps as a teacher for children at risk during her army service.
The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, founded in 1996, develops and implements impactful and meaningful programs with a focus on promoting a prosperous Israel, nurturing and highlighting Israeli innovation, and paving the way for shared-living between all of Israel's citizens and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbours.
Leeon and Tala are attending the festival as representatives of two well-known sports programmes initiated by the centre - twinned peace sports schools, which has been running for more than 16 years, and Playing Fair Leading Peace that started more than four years ago.
"In diverse communities across the region, Israeli and Palestinian boys and girls take part in a unique, in-depth peace education through sport programme. Through 'twinning' Jewish and Arab as well as Israeli and Palestinian communities come together, play in mixed groups as one team and undergo extensive training with their coaches in the unique educational methodologies developed by the Peres Center", Sarit Arditi, a spokesperson for the Peres Centre said.
"At the end of each activity year, all participants meet for the Mini Mondial - a World Cup-themed tournament - and together with ambassadors from around the world, local mayors, and Israeli Premier League players, enjoy a full day of sports, fairplay, and peacebuilding," Sarit added.
Football Learning Global (FLG) is a long-term learning collaboration initiative among 10 different organisations in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
FLG takes up common projects that focus on local and global societal challenges, creates spaces for mutual learning and develops common concepts for social change - locally and globally.
The common denominator of the network is street football. The focus is not just on the game itself, but on new ways of connecting football and education.
"The shared love of football worldwide serves as a bridge between countries and continents. A commonly developed educational approach through street football is the pedagogical framework for Football-Learning-Global, starting with street football game rules which fosters social learning. Participants take an active role and have responsibility as project designers, implementers, and mentors," a release said.
"Through street football, participants have an exciting real-life access point to young people from other countries and cultures, allowing them to learn from and with one another. All the partner-NGOs are experts in education and development through street football, and have been working for many years in this field. They take on a central function bridging schools and youth-institutions in the international network and building partnerships", it added.
Germany's federal ministry of the interior is partner and co-funder of the international festival.
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