11 février 2011
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| Top Football Clubs Unite to Educate Young Adults in Bethlehem |  |  |
| 08.02.11 - 11:35 | |
| Barbara Schneider to PNN - The three top clubs FC Basel 1893 (Switzerland), SV Werder Bremen and Bayer 04 Lever-kusen (both Germany) staged the second module of their year-long football education programme in the West Bank. In cooperation with local organisations they teach young women and men from the Palestinian Territories how to set up trainings for children using football as a tool to convey social competencies and core values.  Training Day at SOS Children’s Village Ingo Goetze, coach of German Bundesliga club SV Werder Bremen, observed them and provided some inputs. “This tournament is the conclusion and highlight of the three-day education module”, the young coach explained. “It’s the second time I’m in Bethlehem now and I’m very happy about my duty. The work with the group is very rewarding and I hope I can teach them important skills they can use when they work with children.“ Football – a useful and strengthening leisure time activity The aim of the year-long initiative is to educate young people as football coaches and multipliers for children’s football. The project is organized by the Swiss non-profit Scort Foundation and implemented in cooperation with its partner clubs and further local partners in Bethlehem. By educating youngsters as coaches many disadvantaged children indirectly profit from the programme as these “Young Coaches” organise training sessions and football events for the children and therefore offer valuable free time activities. It’s all about educating multipliers. “Sport is an important element to bring together people, to teach core values and to provide special moments for the children”, explains Mohammed Shalaldeh, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages Palestine, when he welcomed the international instructors, the Young Coaches and the Scort Team at his village. Hiba, Manal and the other “Young Coaches” welcomed the six to fourteen year old children and divided them into groups for the planned tournament. Hiba was born in Gaza but grew up in the SOS Children’s Village in Bethlehem. According to the SOS Children’s Village concept, she lived in one of the little houses together with other children and their surrogate mother until the age of fourteen. Nearly 100 girls and boys from the Palestinian Territories live in the SOS Children’s Village in Bethlehem right now. They come from cities like Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah as well as from the further surrounding of Bethlehem. Many of them are social orphans meaning that they still have parents but because of their difficult life situation they are not able to look after their children. Once they are fourteen the youngsters are prepared to become more and more independent. They join supervised residential groups and pass an apprenticeships, vocational trainings or university studies after their school examination. After finishing her education Hiba now stands on her own feet, she has an apartment in Bethlehem and works as accountant. Besides her daily job she leads football trainings for girls at the SOS Children’s Village twice a week. Therefore, she can directly apply what she has learned in the coaching education programme. “I highly appreciate to be selected for this educational programme. It is great to attend lessons conducted by these professional instructors and to learn with all the others in this group”, she tells brightly but seriously at the same time. Hiba was a player of the Palestinian Women’s National Team. Her job doesn’t leave her enough time for this anymore, but the work with the children at the SOS Children’s Village is an important new task for her. “For the little ones, I am a role model and friend at the same time”, she explains proudly. The integration of local partners to guarantee a successful and sustainable project During the project Scort co-operates with different local partners. At the beginning of the project the Diyar Consortium, SOS Children’s Village, Bethlehem University and UNRWA selected the participants for the coaching education programme. Diyar supports Scort with the organisation on local level, provides infrastructure and contributes lectures. This time, Rami Khader of the Diyar Consortium introduced the “Young Coaches” to the topic “Leadership and Community Service”. Today, SOS Children’s Village Bethlehem invited the whole project group to the village. After the theoretical morning sessions the international instructors, “Young Coaches” and the Scort-Team were invited to have lunch at the different houses which offered the opportunity to get gain an insight into the village’s family life – a unique experience for everyone. “The integration of local partner determines the success and the sustainability of our education projects”, says Marc-André Buchwalder, CEO of Scort. “It’s important that local partner identify themselves with the project as it’s the only way to continue the initative after its finish.” This is also a very important aspect for the international instructors of Scort’s partner clubs who carefully monitor the development of the “Young Coaches”. Despite the heavy rains the football tournament, fully planned and implemented by the “Young Coaches” themselves, was a great success. A total of 80 children participated. “You can see at the smiles on their faces that the “Young Coaches” did a fantastic job and successfully applied what they have learned during the last days”, said Willy Schmid, in-structor of the Swiss champion FC Basel 1893. The team of instructors looks forward to returning to Bethlehem in May when the next part of the coaching education programme will be staged. In the meantime, the Young Coaches have the task to organise football trainings and football events for the children in their communities. Perhaps there will also be another event at the SOS Children’s Village Bethlehem. |
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9523
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