Generation Amazing and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have teamed up to deliver a football for development and life skills programme for youth in Argentina, Iraq, Myanmar and Uganda.

They have collaborated to develop a 12-week curriculum which provides essential life skills, leadership development and learning opportunities to vulnerable and excluded youth in the four countries.

The curriculum will promote inclusion, engagement and empower marginalised youth, enabling them to lead social change in their communities. The programme will be delivered by on-ground facilitators trained in Generation Amazing’s football for development methodology as well as techniques used in the IFRC’s Youth as Agents of Behavioural Change initiative toolkit.

H.E Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), said: “Football can play a vital role in bringing people together and promoting inclusion, health, leadership, discipline and teamwork. We recognise that football is an important tool and a catalyst for engaging young people and inspiring development and peace.”

Speaking of the importance of coming to the aid of communities affected by crisis, Al Thawadi added: “Empowering and educating vulnerable youth who are subjected to exclusion or violence, as well as refugees and displaced persons, is essential to achieving positive change and is a unifying factor in this programme with our partners at the IFRC.”

Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the IFRC, said: “The past 12 months have been difficult for everyone, but they have been especially tough for young people. The pandemic has disrupted access to education, sport and social networks which, in many cases, has created new or deeper marginalisation.

“This programme – and its use of football in particular – is a unique and timely way of engaging with young people, of helping them rediscover a sense of purpose, and of empowering them to become agents of positive change in their communities.”

Generation Amazing previously signed a partnership agreement with the IFRC to jointly deliver football for development programmes to vulnerable youth in several countries across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America in 2020.

Providing a safe space to engage with the programme, the partnership will also work towards establishing football pitches and classrooms for youth. In addition, the programme will enable youth to interact with local networks, and give participants the opportunity to create change in their schools, neighbourhoods and the wider community, as well as encouraging them to find solutions to the reoccurring challenges in their environments and within the challenging contexts of refugee and underprivileged communities.

Generation Amazing operates in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, promoting inclusion and gender equality in its football for development programme. The programme’s unique methodology teaches life skills including communication, leadership, teamwork and organisation, and has already reached more than 725,000 youth in over 10 countries globally since 2010. Generation Amazing aims to reach 1 million beneficiaries by 2022 through the inspiring power of football and working in collaboration with key local and global partners including the IFRC.

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