Cross Cultures and the Open Fun Football School celebrates the UN International day of Peace by organising the Women’s Peace festival in Afghanistan in cooperation with the Aghanistan Football Federation (AFF) and the Afghan Womens Football Committee.
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In total 140 female football players from 8 -18 years old attended the Women’s Peace Festival in Kabul. Through joyful games at the Open Fun Football Schools and speeches delivered by senior government officials and other notabilities the female participants spread the message of Peace and Friendship through Sport and promoted Women’s Rights.
The Women’s Peace Festival was organized by 28 female coaches and was broadcasted in media all over the world.
Afghanistan is the youngest partner in the Cross Cultures ‘Open Fun Football School family’. This season AFF and Cross Cultures have so far organized one coach seminar and four Open Fun Football Festivals in Afghanistan for a total of 888 boys and girls.
Sports as catalyser for Peace in Afghanistan
With the withdrawal of the ISAF forces big efforts most be put into reintegrating the country and its people bringing the conflicting parties to share the everyday life and live peacefully together. In this process Cross Cultures see that sports can play a very important role providing national cohesion, building cross cutting communities and bringing love and attention to the children.
Sports in general and football in particular enjoy lots of positive attention and support all over Afghanistan these days. The recent win of the Afghan national team against Pakistan called great attention and TV-pools confirm that the match was watched by 17 mio. viewers – over 50% of the total population. The women’s national team recent win against Kazakhstan and the new national league is also enjoying positive attention. And so does the National Team spectacular win in the South Asia Cup earlier this month of course!
All these positive sports results brings support and a feeling of cohesion from all sides in the country, and even in the President’s Office one speak today about what sport can do for the country, and how the government can use sports strategically in the future – both elite and grassroots – as tool to enhance cohesion, national identity, community and reintegration.
Further, Football in Afghanistan enjoy the special status as one out of very few that they are able to reach out to the entire population. On this basis AFF has just drafted a national strategy on how to further develop football in the country by bringing football to the whole Afghanistan while at the same time using football as tool to build communities and by that stimulating the important process of reintegration and peaceful co-existence.
Today AFF is in the early development stage and has made their first steps towards developing a strategy and a structure for developing grassroots and female football all over the country. The Open Fun football Schools program and our Fun Football Festivals is considered an important and fundamental brick in this strategy, and the successful implementation of the above seminars and festivals all confirm the relevance of the program in Afghanistan.
