The Ukrainian Football Association, together with the Khmelnytsky Oblast Football Association and the Dunayevetska District Football Association, have launched open football lessons to help displaced children integrate into host communities and socialize with local children.

Photo courtesy of UAF

Local schools received 150 footballs and a large amount of other sports equipment for conducting football events, volunteers were equipped with sportswear, and each child will receive a project t-shirt and a participant certificate.

Photo courtesy of UAF

It should be noted that within the framework of the project, humanitarian aid is provided to displaced families in the form of medical, food kits and first-aid items.

The city mayor of Dunayevets Volina Zayats, head of the Khmelnytsky Oblast Football Association Igor Khiblin, and the project coordinator from UAF Yevgeniy Stolitenko welcomed the children at the central stadium in Dunayevets.

Photo courtesy of UAF

It should be noted that all volunteers and their leader, the head of the Dunayevetska District Football Association Mykola Kulyk, as well as the oblast coordinator of the project Mykola Kuznetsov, did a great preparatory job and were creative on the football field.

The schedule for "Open Football Lessons" is constantly updated:

May 20-21 — Khmelnytsky Oblast, Dunayevets;

May 21-22 — Chernivtsi Oblast, Novoselytsia;

May 23-24 — Ternopil Oblast, Buczacz;

May 26-27 — Ternopil Oblast, Zaliztsi;

May 26-27 — Khmelnytsky;

May 27-28 — Chernivtsi;

June 11-12 — Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Nadworna.

Photo courtesy of UAF

We also publish a list of other communities that have joined the project:

Zakarpattya Oblast, Hushts;

Zakarpattya Oblast, Uzhhorod;

Ivano-Frankivsk;

Lviv Oblast, Sosnovka;

Lviv Oblast, Stryi/Morshyn;

Rivne;

Rivnenska Oblast, Ostroh.

All project events are conducted with the approval of oblast military administrations.

We remind you that in April, special preparatory training for volunteers was held in seven regions participating in the project.

Photo courtesy of UAF

The general goal of the "Open Football Lessons" project is to contribute to the protection of children affected by war, unaccompanied children, orphans and other vulnerable children who were forced to relocate to Western Ukraine (the project is currently being implemented in seven regions — Zakarpattya, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernivtsi oblasts).

Photo courtesy of UAF

In addition to the general goal, the project has three specific objectives:

— To provide immediate humanitarian assistance (medical, food and non-food items) to children affected by war and their families;

— To provide psychosocial support to children through a powerful social tool of mass football, through games and open football events that will unite the target groups of children with local children;

— To provide material-technical and moral support to cross-sectoral networks united by football in Western Ukraine in their efforts to help affected target groups of children.

International donors and partners for the project — New Democracy Fund (Denmark), Common Goal (Germany), Cross Cultures Project Association (Denmark).