The Klitschko Foundation joins the international movement  #FootballPeople, in which more than 50 countries all over the world participate this year. During the project participants will get to know how to act against different forms of discrimination that girls in football face. These sessions will be an opportunity for participants to acquire skills and instruments, which will help girls overcome psychological difficulties related to discrimination and strengthen the potential of trainers. 

For 5 days, 20 participants will take part in the online training sessions dedicated to ensuring equal opportunities for everybody and fighting discrimination and exclusion in sport. 

“Sports are extremely important for human development, both physical and mental. But, unfortunately, the involvement of children in physical education classes in schools is too low. There are various reasons for this: the lack of safe sports equipment, outdated teaching methods, bullying. Particular attention should be paid to discrimination against students according to the kinds of sports they play. Apparently, we are all familiar with the stereotype that football is a game for boys, but gymnastics is for girls. But in reality, everyone can and wants to do both, but stereotypes do not allow them to express themselves!

We cannot stand aside from the challenges that young people face. For 17 years, the Klitschko Foundation has always tried to implement projects or join the initiatives for the development of sports in Ukraine: set up playgrounds, provide sports equipment for schools, involve physical education teachers in getting educational training. This fall we are joining the #FootballPeople weeks. By joining this initiative, we are spreading one of our values - opportunities for everyone.

On October 12-22, we are implementing #FootballPeople weeks with our partner FareNet. We want to promote sports among girls, so we plan to hold online training sessions for coaches on how to encourage students to play sports and how to increase their activity. “We believe this project will help us to ignite in teenage girls a desire to lead an active lifestyle and do sports”, says Alina Nosenko, Director of the Klitschko Foundation.

The project participants will be able to take part in lectures on the next topics: gender equality, discrimination, stereotypes in sports, development of professional skills.

After that, they will implement local projects for young sportswomen in their communities in order to increase the involvement of girls in various sporting activities.

The partner of the project implemention is FareNet – an organization which is based on the network of non-governmental organizations, sport clubs and groups of fans who are focused on fighting all the forms of discrimination at every sport level. Opposing racism, homophobia, far-right nationalism and discrimination against people with disabilities, FareNet created #FootballPeople Weeks as a way to combat discrimination in football. FareNet is a partner and a donor of the Klitschko Foundation in our anti-discrimination seminars for sports coaches, providing training materials used in previous projects conducted within #FootballPeople Weeks.