CCPA/OFFS in Afghanistan

In collaboration with a growing number of partners CCPA has just completed a pilot project introducing Open Fun Football schools to Afghanistan.
The Open Fun Football Schools days in Kabul went beyond best expectation. To watch 200 boys and girls from across Kabul City embark on the road to changing the world through Open Fun Football Schools in Afghanistan, spectacular! All youth power and smiles as 159 boys and 41 girls along 25 male & female coaches and coach assistants (all volunteers) from 7 provinces implemented the very first Open Fun Football School days in the country.
Kids came from 4 Kabul football clubs and Aschiana children’s project and reflected a good mix of boys and girls – all from different backgrounds – on the pitch, together.
Tough days went ahead of the opening in Kabul: 4 days of training from 9 am to 20 pm on a regional coach seminar hosted by Tajikistan Football Federation, long hours travelling the roads, a single day of rest and planning. And then, the national team managed organising top notch Open Fun Football School days for the first time, successfully putting to practice the theory of the Open Fun Football Schools education and curriculum. Entirely on their own!
Sport is a fabulously strong vehicle for ferrying across communal messages. The purpose of the Open Fun Football Schools in Afghanistan is – as elsewhere in 16 other Open Fun Football Schools countries – the promotion of peace-building and civil society development through fostering dialogue and coherence in communities across and among nations. It’s the common language of sport. The Open Fun Football Schools builds on the philosophy that new communal narratives can be set off by the positive experience of organised children’s grassroots football, "Children – Welfare – Future" showing a way forward. Indeed, do not forget, children is Future’s best foundation! In tandem with mobilising children’s sport networks across the country, the project will keep communities interconnected as the group of coaches joining the Open Fun Football Schools expands – one day reaching all corners of Afghanistan, hopefully.
In the pilot project we are proud to collaborate with Afghanistan Football Federation, Dasht-e-Bashi Sport Community, Aschiana, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and TOLO TV. To ensure that the project truly reflect the populace of Afghanistan we will continue to be drawing on the contacts of a widening range of civil society organisation and educational institutions, and with a particular view to recruitment through the active involvement of local shuras, school councils, clubs and amateur sports networks in rural areas. The Open Fun Football Schools in Kabul enjoyed good media attention: 7 channels came to report on what is going on … TOLO TV, Tamadon, OneTV, Kabul News, Negha, TV3 and Voice of America … maybe you had opportunity to watch ´the children’s Open Fun Football Schools activities on the news, those days?
It is of great importance to relay stories like this to a wider national & international audience – to counter what is a lopsided media focus on the corruption and the war and the narcotics. Life in Afghanistan is a thousand fold more far from this, fortunately. Also Open Fun Football Schools in Kabul is in good timing and sync with ongoing media coverage of Afghan taekwondo bronze medal winner Rohullah Nikpai at the 2012 Olympics – two angles: the elite sport and the people’s grassroots sport, both about the nation … with the only difference that many more girls are taking part at Open Fun Football Schools.
The experience of the first trial project shows that sport for peace-building and development with cross-cutting national reach is both in high demand and very, very fitting. An Open Fun Football Schools Facebookpage for all of Afghanistan has been established where to share your grassroots football experience in pictures and texts and other content. Follow Open Fun Football Schools for All Afghans