Football for peace
The MasterPeace club in Burundi organized a MasterPeace Cup together with SGL. This is a series of games of capacity-building through football, engaging vulnerable youth groups from various areas of Burundi.
Football to bring peace
The MasterPeace club in Burundi organised a MasterPeace Cup in collaboration with SGL. This comprises a series of capacity-building football games, involving vulnerable youth groups from various areas of Burundi. The country suffers from a long history and current tensions that have been escalating for months. This resulted in recent civil protests and a failed military coup. However, this is not a new phenomenon, as development problems persist since the end of the civil war in 2005, progressively worsening without a clear path for resolution.
The project aims to provide these vulnerable groups with a new opportunity: playing together builds self-confidence and imparts leadership and teamwork skills, fostering an open mindset and broader perspective for the future. Many of these young people have never played football before. Beyond realising their football dreams, this project offers a chance for the socio-economic reintegration of vulnerable youth from different communities in Burundi.
The project
The project brought together several boys and girls from different districts of Bujumbura City who are the main actors of social cohesion and peace building in the political crisis shaking Burundi.
These young people were sensitised in workshops organised by facilitators. The project gathered many people, including children, adults, and women, who came together to attend this tournament and other activities. They received messages of peace that they will transmit in the communities. Approximately 480 young people, supervised by 15 members of the MasterPeace Burundi team, brought together more than 5000 people during the two months of activities. Awareness of the project was facilitated by two private local radios, including Radio COLOMBE and Buja FM.
The population of these neighbourhoods was uncertain whether this program could foster cohesion because they had not met before, but the activities of the project allowed these two categories of people to meet and engage in a dialogue.
Impact & benefits
- Give the targeted youth a safe space for meetings, dialogue and learning on peace-building through sports.
- Strengthen and teach professional/vocational skills to the unemployed and school dropouts.
- Raise the awareness of the recipients’ families to support their education.
- Give a safe space to youngsters to express themselves and meet opposites in a fun and informative way.
“MasterPeace uses music, art and soccer to inspire youngsters to use their talents and organizes dialogues with businesses to create job perspectives. We are proud to have SGL as our partner to help them win their game of life.”
