- Country: Sierra Leone
- Local partner: FANT Sierra Leone
- Established: 2012
About the project
In the project “Football for Unity”, through the establishment and preservation of sports clubs, FANT makes sure that 10.000 kids and adolescents can persistently do sports in Sierra Leone. FANT develops role models who inspire and support kids in their everyday lives. The kids are educated in democratic principles which they are to benefit from in many other aspects of their lives. The clubs educate moreover in human rights, including women’s rights, which are explored and debated on various workshops. This is how FANT creates sports clubs that are more than just clubs – but clubs that take social and human responsibility in local communities.
The sport
FANT’s 10 sports associations in Sierra Leone make sure that 10,000 children and young people are activated every day through sports. The sports associations and the sport are in general used as tools to teach children and young people to enter into communities across social status, gender, age, ethnicity, religion etc. The strong thought of unionship in sports associations known especially from Denmark is used to bring up children to voluntariness, unity and organization. Children and young people live hard lives in Sierra Leone with many chores and worries. The associations create a free space for the kids with room for joy and games, possibility to create friendships and freedom to dream of a better future.
Democracy
Our associations are in nature democratically built. Members are schooled in democratic principles and collective decision-making. In the sports associations, FANT works towards stimulating the understanding of democratic rights and duties from the presumption that the sports associations work as a “small democracy”. The members learn for example about attendance of meetings, general planning and how a board works – and then they are given the possibility to let their own voices be heard as well as making room for others’. Abilities they bring into the big democracy that make them active citizens with the ability and want to participate in society.
Human rights
Every single human has rights. All children have the right to play games and all children have the right to a future. FANT works especially with educating women and children in their rights in order to secure that these are respected and complied with. In a country like Sierra Leone, very few citizens are aware of their general rights which cause for the abuse of power and infringement of human rights. When you support FANT, you help more than 10,000 children and young people, especially girls, to learn about their rights and thereby actively participate critically in society. We believe that it creates a foundation for a better Sierra Leone in the future.
Football for Unity is closely related to the Global Goals of UN, especially Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being as well as Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
