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!
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!
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
