Vadym Kostyuchenko: Open fun football schools were successfully held in a new format, adapted to all sanitary and anti-epidemic norms

22.12.2020 12:08

We bring to your attention the results of the Open Fun Football Schools season, organized by the Ukrainian Association of Football in conjunction with regional football associations and with the support of the European Union. This autumn, they were held in a new format, adapted to all sanitary and anti-epidemic norms.

"Such festivals are a great opportunity to help IDP children from Donbas and Crimea find new friends and choose a healthy lifestyle. This is a good opportunity to involve all students in sports and organize for them the first open football lessons, which are led by famous players and coaches. Thanks to these interesting master classes, children and young people are fond of football, enroll in sections and win the first small victories in their lives”, - said Andrii Pavelko, President of the Ukrainian Association of Football, a member of the UEFA Executive Committee.

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The head coach of the national football team of Ukraine Andrii Shevchenko drew attention to the fact that the Open Fun Football Schools are what we dreamed of as children. For today's children, such classes have become a reality, and I sincerely envy the kids. Playing football opens up great life prospects for a little person. And even for those who do not connect their destiny with sports, football lessons will be the basis of good health and future friendship. Remember: everyone can be a winner! ”

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The season of this year's festivals began with the training of volunteers - three seminars held in Zaporozhye from 17 to 23 August for representatives of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odessa and Kyiv regions. Given the coronavirus pandemic, the seminars focused on training volunteers to carry out project activities in a new format adapted to all sanitary and anti-epidemic norms. In addition, during the seminars, six video lessons from the project's leading experts on the subject of on-site training were recorded:

- on football equipment;

- from games to development;

- from fun games;

- on the formation of a healthy lifestyle;

- from games from a psychologist;

- from games and materials from the policeman.

Volunteers also gained interesting experience at the "Football + School + Police" seminars organized by the project partner, the All-Ukrainian Foundation for the Protection of Children's Rights, in Odesa on October 19-23.

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In September-October 2020, 15 of the 17 planned festivals were held:

September 4-7 - Kharkiv region, Merefa;

September 8-11 - Kharkiv region, Staryi Saltiv;

September 12-15 - Kharkiv region, Zmiiv;

September 14-17 - Zaporizhzhya region, Mykhailivskyi district, Rozdol;

September 14-17 - Dnipropetrovsk region, Synelnykivskyi district, Raivska OTG, Mykhailivka;

September 14-17 - Zaporizhzhya;

September 15-18 - Zaporizhzhya region, Orikhiv;

September 16-19 - Dnipropetrovsk region, Sofiivskyi district, Vyshneve;

September 17-20 - Luhansk region, Severodonetsk;

September 23-24, September 28-29 - Dnipropetrovsk region, Pavlograd;

September 24-27 - Kyiv region, Tarashchansky district, Kivshovata;

October 2-5 - Luhansk region, Popasna;

October 5-8 - Donetsk region, Lyman;

October 6-9 - Odessa region, Yuzhne;

October 12-15 - Kherson region, Belozerka.

Given the situation with the coronavirus, the festivals planned in Dobropillya, Donetsk region and Krasny Berezansky district of Mykolayiv region, it was decided to postpone to April-May 2021.

In addition, thanks to additional funding from the Ukrainian Football Association and local partners, two more festivals were held:

October 22-25, 2020 - Kherson region, Holoprystan district, Bekhtery (conducted by the Football Association of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which operates in the Kherson region);

October 22-25, 2020 - Khmelnytsky region, Dunaivtsi.

Thus, a total of 2020 festivals of the Open Football Lessons project were held during September-October 17.

Another 15 festivals (one in each other region of Ukraine) were postponed from September-October 2020 to April-May 2021.

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This year's "Open Football Lessons" were held in a new format, adapted to all sanitary and anti-epidemic norms. Traditionally, we have paid the greatest attention to children-migrants from the East and Crimea, as well as to children of servicemen. This year we managed to attract 3400 children to football during the adapted project activities directly through festivals and 23000 - through various other pre- and post-festival football events.

Interestingly, almost 40% of the participants in the festivals were girls, many of whom learned the basics of the football game for the first time. It was also important to attract more than three thousand volunteers, the most active of whom were previously trained at volunteer seminars of the UAF and regional football associations. Most of them expressed a desire to become regular participants in UAF social projects, and some - and to undergo advanced training in the recently introduced D-diploma courses of UAF.

As a result of the project, the regions received a large number of footballs, inventory and equipment totaling about one million hryvnias, which is especially relevant for small towns and rural areas. We are grateful to our international partners of the project, first of all to the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, who provided active support, especially in the eastern and southern regions, ”summed up the first vice-president of UAF Vadym Kostyuchenko.

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The national coordinator of the project, Yevhen Stolitenko, emphasized: “I would like to note the role of regional football associations and local communities in general, which have shown great interest in the proposed innovative approach. We saw in the project not only boys and girls, but also their families, local leaders at various levels, school and educational community, teachers and coaches, representatives of the National Police, psychologists, youth leaders, not indifferent local patrons - football fans.

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We would like to remind you that the Open Fun Football Schools project is implemented within the framework of cooperation between civil society and the public sector for peace, social integration and protection of children in Ukraine, funded by the European Union. The main executors in the project are the Association of Cross-Cultural Projects (Denmark), the Ukrainian Football Association, the All-Ukrainian Foundation for the Protection of Children's Rights, StreetFootballWorld (Germany), in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine.