Dear Champions for Peace,
After only one year of existence, the Champions for Peace Club can pride itself on an exceptional list of achievements.Together, you represent 29 nationalities, 27 sports disciplines, and have a total of no less than 67 world championship and 27 Olympic titles between you!
Impressive figures certainly, but what especially delights the Peace and Sport team is the formidable energy and the exceptional commitment and support that you have demonstrated since the club was launched.
A number of you have already made field visits with us, meeting the disadvantaged young people for whom you are an inexhaustible source of inspiration on the path to stability, reconciliation and peace.
Now we are on such a good track we have no intention of stopping! In 2011, we hope that you, Champions for Peace, become the backbone of all our actions. We need your support to raise awareness amongst decision makers, to convince new partners, to motivate stakeholders in the field, to encourage vulnerable young people to join our programs, and of course to involve your fans, who are also powerful actors for peace!
Thank you for your support. We welcome all your suggestions – please share them with us.
Sportingly yours,
Joël
BOUZOU President and founder, Peace and Sport
7 new sporting legends joined the Champions for Peace club during the Peace and Sport International Forum 2010 and at the beginning of 2011. The club now boasts 54 members!
MARIE-JOSE PEREC (France),
double world champion of 400m and triple Olympic champion of 200 and 400m.
HICHAM EL GUERROUJ (Morocco),
double Olympic champion and quadruple world champion of middle-distance running. Hicham has also been an Ambassador for Peace and Sport since the organization was founded in 2007.
JONAH LOMU (New Zealand),
former player for the All Blacks and living Rugby legend.
SEBASTIEN LOEB (France),
seven-times Car Rally world champion (with co-pilot Daniel Elena, another Champion for Peace).
TEGLA LOROUPE (Kenya),
long-distance runner, world record-holder of 20, 25 and 30km distances. The first African woman to win the New York Marathon.
BERTRAND GROSPELLIER, nicknamed ElkY (France),
professional Poker player ranked in the world’s Top 5.
JEAN-FRANCOIS TORDO (France),
exceptional rugby player and former captain of France’s national team.
On 16 October the very first "Friendship Games" took place in the Great Lakes region of Africa, a day of trans-border sports competitions aiming to promote peace and unite young people from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) around the values of friendship and fraternity offered by sport.
A key message to build the foundations for sustainable peace between two countries that have suffered decades of ethnic tension, gang violence and forced displacement of populations.
This festive day was piloted by Olympic champion Venuste Nyiongabo from Burundi (gold medal in 5000m in the Atlanta Olympics 1996), a true local idol. Under his impulse, several thousand 9-to-15 year-old participants and spectators came together to take part in a fantastic Peace Race, a symbol of the desire of each community to live in harmony and tolerance.
Thanks to Venuste, the operation was a real success and from now on it will be organized every year!
Alexandra Kosteniuk, launches the “Chess for Peace” program in Colombia, Christian Karembeu visits survivor camps in Haiti, Kaveh Mehrabi mobilizes his Facebook network to collect sports material, Venuste Nyiongabo speaks about sport as a vehicle for reconciliation in the Great Lakes region of Africa…
Four great Champions choose four different forms of concrete engagement at the service of peace and social stability…
This 6-minute video illustrates the diversity of actions which Champions for Peace can undertake. It was first shown during the 4th Peace and Sport International Forum in December 2010.
From 20-23 February 2011, Pedro Alejandro Yang, Guatemalan badminton champion and Peace and Sport “Champion for Peace” was in Colombia to launch “BADMINTON POR LA PAZ” (Badminton for Peace), a program using badminton and its values to teach a culture of peace to young underprivileged Colombians and to support their social integration.
For a minimum duration of three years, the “BADMINTON POR LA PAZ” program will offer guidance to vulnerable young people from 8 to 14 years old living in deprived slum areas of Bogota, Cali and Barbosa and in areas affected by guerrilla warfare in Guapi. The program will support efforts to reintegrate young internal refugees, often on the borders of society, who do not attend school, traumatized by their displacement.
Pour Pedro, the experience will remain unforgettable: "My favourite memory has to be when the children first grab a badminton racket. They swing their rackets to hit the shuttles and realize it might be more difficult than it had seemed when I was giving them the intro, but once they start hitting the shuttle they become little badminton machines - they just won’t stop playing and call me to play with them as they want to show off their new talent!”
Today, he wants to go further in his undertaking: “We, as athletes, have a duty to our society that goes beyond sporting results. We have a social responsibility to help those in need and unfortunately children are most often in this group. By using badminton as a tool for their recreation, we aim to keep these children off the street and far from harm’s way and the negative social problems that might derail them from a prosperous life. I hope more projects like this will be launched around the world, but Badminton por la Paz is a good stepping stone.”
In front of 500 decision makers from 95 countries, united for the Opening Ceremony of the 4th Peace and Sport International Forum, ten Champions for Peace came on stage to explain the reasons which drove them to join the Peace and Sport movement.
Speaking frankly and from the heart, they affirmed their commitment to act in areas of tension throughout the world and they made a strong commitment for the years to come to put sport at the service of peace.
Click here to see them on stage and to hear their testimonies.
Wilson Kipketer is a key figure in the athletics world who is much respected for his exceptional performances (three times world champion of 800m and world record-holder for many years) and also and especially for his generous personality and joyful humanitarianism.
During the 2010 Peace and Sport Forum, this outstanding athlete of Kenyan nationality (Danish by adoption) gave a personal testimony about the capacity of sport to relieve victims of natural and man-made disasters: “For me, what really counts is when people first get their smile back, thanks to sport. When we smile, we are alive, and from there, we can build something”.
Earlier in the evening before the opening of the 4th Peace and Sport International Forum, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco hosted a convivial and informal reception for the Champions for Peace present in Monaco for the Forum, in the company of Joel Bouzou.
Passionate about all kinds of sport, the High Patron of Peace and Sport is the only Head of State who is a five-times Olympian (in Bobsleigh) and member of the International Olympic Committee. For him, sport and humanitarianism go hand in hand…
“My personal story and the educational opportunity that sport offered me motivated me to take action for economic development in vulnerable communities” recounts Jack Brewer, former star player of the National Football League (NFL) in the United States, who now devotes his time to sport and social justice through his Foundation. Since January 2011, Jack has been working in association with us to launch Peace and Sport USA, which will enable our organization to intervene throughout the entire American continent.
Jack will have the mission of mobilizing great American athletes to encourage them to support Peace and Sport’s action.
During the Peace and Sport International Forum, he recounted his vision of the role of athletes in society: “Through sport I’ve learned the values of hard work, preparation, strategy, time management and sportsmanship: core values for the whole community(…) Athletes can bring extremely positive collateral to society (…) It is our ambition to establish a platform in the US devoted to offering guidance and advice to athletes who dream of leaving a positive impact on the world, which is not just a promotional stage.”
For a good start to the year 2011, you can now follow our activities and those of the entire Peace and Sport community on Facebook and Twitter.
Photos, videos, up-to-the-minute commentaries… Follow our actions for peace-promotion and peace-building through sport in real time.
Ideas? Suggestions? Comments? Please post them on our Facebook page.
And don’t forget to become a Peace and Sport 'fan'!
Do you want to encourage your fans to commit alongside you in programs to build and promote peace through sport?
Peace and Sport is setting up an initiative which enables you to put your name to a Locally-based project, aimed at a precise audience to solve an identified issue. You can then invite your fans to support your project and to follow its progress.
To find out about projects you can be associated with, please contact us.
