The Kick Project

This is a longer version of an article published on SportandDev.org With the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace closed down by the global body, there is undoubtedly a void in this space in which many of us here work. But, for all the high profile oomph the UNOSDP added to the world of sport for good, it’s passing need not be seen as devastating. For one, the work the UNOSDP has already done in its 16 years of life has laid a platform for the development of sport for social justice. While many of us knew for years that sport had a wider purpose beyond mere business or entertainment, the UNOSDP has provided a base of credibility that may have otherwise taken much longer to establish. While much of the work is, in many ways, still to be done, the UNOSDP has left a positive legacy on which we can all build. More problematic is the shifting of the UNOSDP’s brief to the IOC. Obliging the IOC to administer to the peace and development facets ...

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Bangladesh had a fraught path to independence. Squeezed in between the mega forces of Pakistan and India the people of the former East Pakistan suffered greatly as they sought freedom. But, as this little known story (at least to us) shows, there was an important strategy by some to use sport to open up the debate. Some of the tactics used might sit uncomfortably with some - the involvement of some Indians for instance seems reflective of the politics of convenience at a tense time for instance - but the overall strategy of using sport as a form of peace diplomacy is roundly endorsed by The Kick Project. The power of sport to open up the space for dialogue - often in inarticulate ways - remains a powerful and too-little used force for good in the human world. This i nteresting read from Vice.

Pic: footage.framepool.com Final in our five-part series on how sport for development and peace works. EXAMPLE 5: SPORT IS FUN The regenerative power of having fun, particularly for younger members of a community, should not be underestimated. In situations where children are forced to witness the cruelest, most unjust, violent or depraved manifestations of human behaviour many experience alarmingly, if understandable, high levels of stress and mental health disorders. Being able to release the tension and to revert to being children again may be all a given child needs to begin to find his/her way back to a normal life. Moreover, introducing children and youths to the fun aspects of life, such a sport, in a well-structured context, can head-off generational attachments to dispute and possibly war. Children who are exposed to children from groups and communities with whom their parents may be, or have been, or may yet be, at war can lift the level of relationships to a more...

Pic: News24 Distressing news coming out regarding a lost generation of children, victims of the war in Syria. Human Rights Watch has released its report into Syrian refugees in Turkey and finds that as many as 400,000 Syrian children there have no access to education. This is in a context of virtual 100% primary school attendance in Syria pre-civil war and high levels of high school attendance as well as good scores on educational ratings, such as literacy. This is what war does. It may be easy to blame Turkey for this situation. But, this country has taken in around 2 million Syrians fleeing violence and a broken country. Rather than blame Turkey - and blame is not a word we like much here, anyway - maybe we should all look at what are we doing as individuals, and at what are our governments and the international bodies that represent us doing about this. This appears evidence that more needs to be done. It's not about blame, but about finding solutions.* We take a b...

One year on from the escalation of violence in Gaza and things are still looking very sour.  A news quote from Save the Children CEO Paul Ronalds is pertinent: "Save the Children is urging Australia and other nations to use their diplomatic influence to promote the lifting of the blockade to allow the entry of essential humanitarian aid and enable the rebuilding of homes and schools, and support a return to some level of normality for the many distressed children in Gaza.” The Kick Project is still working hard to take a program to Gaza. But, these plans have been re-scheduled for various reasons. Mainly, the program has proved to be a little more complicated than we had anticipated and we have re-focussed on plans for our Rohingya program in Malaysia. We feel that at this early stage of our development as a not for profit organisation we need to build more critical mass in our funding and our management infrastructure before launching into Gaza. We are wary of wast...