UEFA-backed CCPA festival in Sarajevo

The latest Open Fun Football Schools project accompanied the 2009 Kids' Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the enterprise run by the Cross Cultures Project Association (CCPA) using football to bring young people together.

40,000 boys and girls
Around 40,000 boys and girls from across the former Yugoslav republic came to the city's Zetra sports complex as part of the Kids' Festival between 12 and 17 June, with the Open Fun Football School seeing children of all ethnic backgrounds train, play and enjoy the game together. The football event and the Kids' Festival are an important step in the process of building young people's confidence and sense of community in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Major event
The Kids' Festival is now a major event in Bosnia-Herzegovina, combining entertainment, fun and education for a whole generation of local youngsters. It was named as one of Sarajevo's most important cultural projects, with large numbers of children – chaperoned by police from both of the nation's constituent entities – kicking off this year's celebrations with a colourful parade through the capital's downtown area,

Nordic support
With Denmark and Norway both supporting the event, the two Nordic nations' embassies were a particular focus of activity, with visiting children being encouraged to use Lego to express themselves, draw the Danish and Norwegian flags and sample some Scandinavian sweets. The CCPA event, meanwhile, involved hockey and volleyball as well as the usual mini-football. Hundreds of children took part, with many walking away with a memento in the form of Open Fun Football Schools T-shirts and wristbands.

Helping social cohesion
The Open Fun Football Schools project is run by the CCPA – a Danish non-governmental organisation – with the help of the Norwegian Football Association and the Gerlev Sports Academy. It aims to use football as a means of stimulating the progress of democracy, peace, stability and social cohesion in south-eastern Europe by re-establishing friendships and sporting co-operation between otherwise antagonistic social groups.

Tangible difference
A presentation on the project was one of the highlights of April's UEFA Grassroots Workshop in Hamburg, with Anders Levinsen – the leader of the CCPA – demonstrating how it has made a tangible difference to children's lives in the ten years since its launch. "We want to be open wherever we go," Levinsen said. "We want to use football as a meeting place to bring children and adults together, and to bring football to people who cannot afford to play it."