17:00, 06 April 2021
Words by Smiley Team, Staff Writer, London
Today, 6th April, is the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, created to spread awareness of the role sport plays in creating societal cohesion. Among the organisations working towards this goal is Football for Peace, which employs football as a tool for strengthening communities.
For the last 15 years, the international charity has held peace matches across the world to promote dialogue and help get football recognised as a cause for good.
In a joint statement, footballers and co-founders of the charity Elias Figueroa and Kashif Siddiqi said: “Coming as we do from humble upbringings, we understand the fear that comes from isolation, rejection and the unknown. We both relate to young people and their families’ struggles.
“Through football, our aim is to renew hope, educate, build confidence and find peace in the midst of local and global hardship. As professional athletes, we consider football to have a unique capacity to reach far beyond ethnic, religious or social differences and challenge divisive narratives.”
In the past decade, the world has seen an overall decline in peace and security, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. So initiatives such as Football for Peace are increasingly necessary.
Figueroa and Siddiqi explained their view on the need for efforts to strengthen the bonds between communities: “Both of us feel we are living in a world which has never been so connected, but yet feels so divided and unbalanced with poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, injustice and lack of peace.”
Football for Peace’s matches have taken place around the world, from the UK to South America. The matches are used as an opportunity to bring together different communities in conflict and build a more peaceful relationship between them.
One of their matches brought together young people from different neighbourhoods in suburban Paris, offering them workshops to build their confidence as well as their belief in the value of unity. Another match helped start a dialogue between two tribes on Easter Island, which had previously been in conflict.
To support the mission and help build more harmonious communities on International Day of Sport for Development and Peace donate and find out more information here.
