Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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The AFC Dream Asia Foundation (ADAF) collaborated with the Lebanese Football Association (LFA) to conduct the Football 4 Good initiative across eight regions in the country, namely Beirut, Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, Nabatieh, North Lebanon, Aakkar, Baalbek and Beqaa from January to April 2023.
With the goal of helping Lebanon’s youth use the power of football to overcome life’s challenges, the programme is a firm indication of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)’s determination in ensuring that football is carried out in a safe and encouraging atmosphere for every individual.
The four-month project, besides engaging young children in various sporting activities, trained coaches to understand the principles of child safeguarding while also providing them with guidance on coaching adolescents. For this purpose, several football training workshops were organised by the LFA, with the help of 50 local clubs, and eight regional coordinators.
With the AFC’s commitment towards protecting the rights of children forming the core of the project, the LFA, with the support of the ADAF, also held detailed sessions with coaches and parents of the participating children to improve their understanding of the importance of Child Safeguarding and lay special emphasis on subjects such as “grooming” and child rights.
Aiming to empower the youth of the country, the initiative used football as a tool to inculcate valuable life lessons such as teamwork, adaptation skills, communication, empathy and resilience in children to help them enhance their overall lifestyle and help them develop a life-long passion for the beautiful game.
With almost 1000 young boys and girls, including those with special needs, participating in the programme, the initiative also proved to be an excellent opportunity for coaches to identify talented youth footballers in the country for being handpicked and trained to become future stars of Lebanese football.
By raising awareness on the fundamental tenets of child safeguarding, the initiative helped to lay a strong foundation for the community to build a society where children can be protected from abuse, neglect, and exploitation so that they can develop into, both physically and mentally, healthy individuals.
