Sports have a fundamental human appeal. They can connect people across cultures, religions, nationalities, languages, and other divides. When people participate in sporting activities, they learn to respect the dignity of their opponents, the values of teamwork and tolerance, and the importance of fair play and regulations. Sports can, in a few words, be an important tool for peacebuilding and reconciliation. In this light, WPDI designs and implements programs as a vehicle for young women and men to practice values of mutual respect, inclusion, and fair play while entertaining themselves.
PEACE THROUGH SPORTS
The idea for the Peace Through Sports program came to Forest Whitaker when he visited a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South Sudan in 2014. The children and youths he saw there were left to themselves and their traumas, with few outlets other than their dreams of exacting vengeance from whomever had brought this calamity on them. Seeking to offer them psychosocial support while educating them on peace, Mr. Whitaker recognized that sports was, with its values of cooperation, tolerance and respect for rules, a perfect vehicle to cultivate values of peace in a way that would entertain and motivate children and youths.
Combining sports activities – weekly practice and games – with peacebuilding workshops and conferences, Peace Through Sports has proved very effective for disseminating positive values among young people from contexts of conflict, violence or fragility. This is obtained through the patient work of our trained coaches and experts who get, among others, individuals from conflicting groups and tribes to play together and learn from and on each other. The program also proved its worth for empowering girls and female adolescents in contexts where traditional norms often keep them behind the walls of their homes.
EVENTS AND TOURNAMENTS
WPDI makes an effort to ensure that the teams in its sports program can participate in various competitions both for their sportive development and the opportunity to disseminate values of peace and human rights. Our teams regularly participate in local and national competitions. These are key for motivating participants, and they also serve as a means of social integration in their local and national contexts, which is particularly important for children and youths from marginalized communities or from displaced and refugee populations. WPDI is also an event organizer, notably through the “Peace Engagement Days”. Each event is a combination of a classic sports competition with peacebuilding events that allow to raise awareness of local populations on values of peace. These events are organized in close cooperation with local stakeholders to ensure that the whole community is informed and invited to participate.
