NEWS - Qatar Olympic Committee

o o o o o o o o o
GLOBAL
sport FUND
PLAYING FOR
PEACE
ESTABLISHED IN 2005,
QATAR’S GLOBAL SPORT
FUND PROJECT IS
PROMOTING SPORT AS A
MEDIUM TO CHANGE THE
LIVES OF YOUNGSTERS
FOR THE BETTER
20 QatarSport Q2.09
The Global Sport Fund (GSF), the Doha-based
joint initiative between the United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Qatar
Olympic Committee, launched its third GSF
international youth camp at the Al Maadi
Olympic Centre in Cairo, Egypt in February.
Offering young people opportunities to
interact and develop their potential through sport
over four days, this was a sports camp with a
difference. Around 200 boys and girls, from the
11-18 age group, took part in football and
volleyball training clinics and friendly
multi-national team competitions at the camp.
The competitors scored points not only for
winning, but for “fair play”, teamwork and
conduct. The youngsters learnt important life
skills in classroom discussions focusing on playing
by the rules, respect for others and awareness of
the harm of drug use and anti-social behaviour.
Kicking off the camp programme, Wilfried
Lemke, Special Adviser to the Secretary General
on Sport for Development and Peace,
congratulated the hosts and QOC on behalf of
Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General.
“Sport is the best way to spread the values of
peace in the world, and sport is an international
language,” he said. “Sport allows people to meet
and play together, everywhere and at any time.”
Also present was QOC Secretary General,
Sheikh Saoud, who encouraged the participants to
keep learning and to set a lasting example to their
peers back home. Coaches too, he said, can learn
how to become role models to young people.
The camp trainees came from as far afield as
Azerbaijan, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, the Islamic
Republic of Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar,
Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan,
United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The programme ended with the appointment
of GSF Youth Ambassadors and GSF Coach
Ambassadors at a special gala award ceremony.
The GSF will now help set up after-school sport
activities and mini-camps in the participants’
home countries to keep up the good work.
Previous camps held in Lebanon and Qatar
brought together participants from countries in
conflict. The successes of these initiatives helped
to develop the programme in Cairo.