The mission of Soccer for Peace is to unite children of war-torn regions in their shared love of sport.
We use the game of soccer as both a metaphor and a vehicle for peace. Most of our participants, despite living several kilometres apart, would never meet were it not for this program. By uniting them in a commonly loved activity, always mixing the teams and stressing fair play and cooperation, bonds of friendship form naturally. Arabs and Jews suddenly find themselves united as teammates. We take great care to foster this spirit of cooperation, through the drills we run on the pitch, the subjects we address in dialogue and the social excursions we plan.
We believe that a sincere and lasting peace can only be created by attitudinal change, which in turn only occurs through positive personal experience. The carefully planned and controlled activities we provide for our participants and the countless friendships and positive experiences we see as a result of our programs are thus a vital contribution to a much needed regional peace.
Targeted Population – Soccer for Peace operates in the Wadi Ara region in North-Central Israel. To ensure the best mix of participants, Soccer for Peace recruits at the municipal level. We select children living in close proximity to one another. This reduces transportation costs during a program and enables friendships formed on the pitch to be developed beyond it. We intentionally recruit from economically disadvantaged areas, where opinions are frequently more extreme, and luxuries such as summer camp are generally unrealistic.
Financial Needs – Programs are free with the exception of a nominal participation fee, enough to ensure that participants will indeed show up. We are committed to providing our participants with top quality instruction in everything we offer at essentially no cost. Our high participant-staff ratio, specially trained and ethnically, religiously and linguistically mixed staff and other tight quality controls increase our financial needs. However, we strongly believe that they are essential to carrying out our commitment to quality, integrity, and long lasting success.