Sport for All, Volunteerism for All
Sharon Capeling-Alakija, Executive Coordinator,
United Nations Volunteers |
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By focusing on volunteerism – and its role in making sports
accessible to all – this Congress sends two crucial messages:
First, wide access to sports is crucial to the vitality and productivity
of every society.
Second, without volunteer effort, wide access is not possible.
This Congress takes place in Germany, a country that can take pride
in the impressive statistic that 28 percent of its citizens volunteer
for organisations or causes in their free time. Germany also houses
the Headquarters of the United Nations (UN) Volunteers Program.
The UN Volunteers Program makes available to countries that require
them, more than 5000 UN Volunteers from virtually every country who,
even as we speak, are hard at work in communities around the globe
– planting, teaching, monitoring, building, healing, rescuing,
designing..and yes.. coaching, refereeing and cheering.
Countless people, all over the world, take pleasure not only in playing
and organising, but also in watching athletics. Why does sport have
such a firm hold on so many of us? Why does it have so much power
to stir our imaginations and raise our spirits?
Sports can uplift and unify. Case in point – as President of
a new South Africa, Nelson Mandela talked about the ‘profound
role of sport...in nation-building and reconciliation’ and called
it a force that ‘is binding our nation’. (footnote)
Sport is indeed about connection. Whether we are fans or coaches or
players, most of us engage in sports with other people. To be sure,
there are exceptions. One can run, swim or drive golf balls alone,
and, as the Arabic saying goes, ‘When you play alone, you are
likely to win..’, but it seems that if too many people play
alone, society is likely to lose.
In the nineties, a Harvard University Professor, Robert Putnam, noticed
that more and more of his countrymen were going to bowling alleys
by themselves. He wrote an article drawing attention to the phenomenon
of ‘Bowling Alone’, and analysed its implications for
civil society. Judging by the publicity this scholarly article received,
he had touched a nerve. ‘Bowling Alone’ ultimately became
a best selling book that set off a good deal of soul searching, reaching
well beyond academic circles.
Like sports, volunteerism is essentially and profoundly optimistic.
It is about human potential, striving, and achievement. It is about
connection. It challenges one’s limits and tests our resolve.
Like so many sports, it requires people to perform on someone else’s
turf, and as in sport, if it’s done right, everybody wins.
As I think of them, sports and volunteerism are a kind of double helix
– two life affirming strands intricately intertwined.
It is in the realm of sports that millions of people around the world
first experience volunteerism. When you begin volunteering as a youth,
you tend to do it for the rest of your life.
Here in Germany, a significant percentage of volunteers – especially
among young people – devote themselves to sports.
That is good news, because as everyone in this room can appreciate,
it takes a tremendous volunteer effort to sustain amateur sports around
the world. Moreover, expanding access to sports opportunities requires
the participation of diverse volunteers.
In short, Sports for All means Volunteerism for All: all ages, all
racial and ethnic groups, all ability levels, all genders, and all
social strata.
Why does this matter so much? Because the leap from scorekeeper to
peacekeeper is not as great as you might think. Let us recall Nelson
Mandela’s comments: He said that sports don’t just unify
people...they help to bring about reconciliation.
This is not just theory. All over the world, efforts are underway
to promote the causes of peace and reconciliation through sports.
Let me offer some examples:
In the aftermath of war, sports can foster reconciliation among former
child combatants, who may be traumatised and polarised by their horrific
experiences. Case in point: in Sierra Leone, UNICEF and the NGO, Right
to Play, have joined forces to organise networks of coaches who can
provide sports programmes for these young people, who have often been
separated from home and family. Sports programmes can help to reconnect
them with each other and with their communities.
In other places affected by conflict or natural disaster, sports help
restore children’s lives to some semblance of normalcy. According
to UNICEF WFT and UNHCR workers, often among the first responders,
two things help most with children’s recovery: number one is
food, and number two is simple sports equipment, such as a ball, a
hoop or a jump rope.
More and more communities and nations are recognising that when they
invest in sport, they are contributing to health, education, employment
and moral development. When they facilitate participation in sports,
they are helping people achieve a sense of belonging. When they support
sport in all of its diversity, including participation by those with
disabilities, they are building hope for the future as well.
Sport is a means: the values and skills learned through
sport, such as fair play, team work, resilience, discipline, and sharing,
parallel those needed for development and peace.
But sport is also an end: the desire to play is an essential
human attribute.

http://www.icsspe.org/portal/bulletin-january2004.htm
Sport for All, Volunteerism for All
Sharon Capeling-Alakija, Executive Coordinator,
United Nations Volunteers
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