The Coordination Center of the Ukrainian Football Association has begun preparations for implementing a project to help internally displaced children in Western Ukraine called "Open Football Lessons." Today, in Rivne, at the Hotel "Mир," a training session was held for local volunteers from Rivne and Ostroh.

Photo roaf.rv.ua

The seminar was held in a hybrid format — offline with the participation of the national coordinator of the project from UFA, Yevheniy Stolitenko, as well as online with the participation of instructors Viktor Tvardovskyy, Serhiy Chesheyka, Lianna Kopilova, Yuriy Lutsenko, and Oleksii Lazarenko.

Rivne became the second city after Khmelnytskyi where such a training session took place. Training is also planned in Lviv (April 17), Ternopil (April 18), Zakarpattia (April 19), Ivano-Frankivsk (April 21), and Chernivtsi (April 27).

Photo roaf.rv.ua

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

Photo roaf.rv.ua

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

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

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

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