Great psycho-social football events to establish friendly relations and communication between children from IDP families and local kids were organized by the Ukrainian Football Association, the Ternopil Football Association (chairman — Taras Yurik), and Bucha Community.

Local schools received a large amount of sports equipment and 150 balls for football events. Volunteers were equipped with sportswear, and each child who participated in the football festival received a project t-shirt and a participant certificate as a gift.

Photos by the press service of UAF

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

The head of the community Vitaliy Freyak, First Deputy Head and Executive Director of the Ternopil Football Association Vasyl Zatorskyi, and the project coordinator from UAF Yevhenii Stolitenko greeted the children at the central stadium in Buchach.

It should be noted that local volunteers worked creatively during football lessons, led by the head specialist of the city council's culture, youth, and sports department Halyna Hordz, as well as the project coordinator from the regional football association Volodymyr Yasuchenko.

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

May 20–21 — Khmelnytskyi region, Dunaivtsi;

May 21–22 — Chernivtsi region, Novoselytsia;

May 23–24 — Ternopil region, Buchach;

May 26–27 — Ternopil region, Zaliztsi;

May 26–27 — Khmelnytskyi city;

May 27–28 — Chernivtsi city;

June 1–2 — Uzhhorod;

June 3–4 — Zakarpattia region, Hushty;

June 11–12 — Ivano-Frankivsk region, Nadworna.

Photos by the press service of UAF

We remind you of the list of other communities that have joined the project:

Ivano-Frankivsk;

Lviv region, Sosnovka;

Lviv region, Stryi/Morshyn;

Rivne city;

Rivne region, Ostroh.

All project events are held with the consent of regional military administrations.

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

The overall goal of the "Open Football Lessons" project is to contribute to the protection of IDP children, unaccompanied children, orphans and other vulnerable children who have suffered from the war and were forced to resettle in Western Ukraine (the project is currently being implemented in seven regions — Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernivtsi oblasts).

Photos by the press service of UAF

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

— provide immediate humanitarian aid (medical, food and non-food items) to IDP children and their families;

— provide psycho-social 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 kids;

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

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