CCPA football camps prove a hit

More than 30,000 children in the Balkans and Transcaucasus have participated in football camps thanks to the award-winning Open Fun Football Schools programme run by UEFA's social responsibility partner, Cross Cultures Project Association (CCPA).

Grassroots Schools
The Danish-based CCPA successfully organised 150 Open Fun Football Schools, enabling tens of thousands of children from post-conflicting areas of Europe to play football in grassroots schools. The children, wearing blue caps promoting UEFA's Respect campaign, all enjoyed five days of football training overseen by more than 2,000 qualified coaches.

Notable first
Open Football Football Schools, ­ beneficiaries of the Sport for Peace Award at the Beyond Sport Summit in London in July, ­ also achieved a notable first by becoming active in Ukraine. The programme's Moldovan office arranged a camp over the border in Socireni, which involved both local children and boys and girls from Ocnita in Moldova. The school was visited by Olexandr Cadenco, a member of the Football Federation of Ukraine's grassroots committee, as well as representatives from the local community, football federation and media.

Tolerance and social cohesion
The CCPA, whose goal it is to promote tolerance and social cohesion among children from conflicting population groups in south-eastern Europe and the Caucasus, is a long-standing social responsibility partner of UEFA. Operating from Copenhagen, it has local branch offices in the various countries where Open Fun Football Schools are
implemented, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova. Besides the fun element of the football schools, these activities aim to encourage reconciliation and integration through dialogue and collaboration.