The Coordination Center of the Ukrainian Football Association has begun preparations for implementing the project "Open Football Lessons" to help internally displaced children in Lviv region.

The day before, a training session took place in Lviv for local volunteers from Lviv and Lviv Oblast (head of the oblast football association - Oleksandr Shevchenko, regional coordinator of the project - Stepan Poniaida).

Photo by the press service of UAF

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

Photo by the press service of UAF

Lviv has become the third city in Western Ukraine, after Khmelnytskyi and Rivne, where volunteer training is taking place. Upcoming seminars are scheduled for Ternopil (April 18), Zakarpattia (April 19), Ivano-Frankivsk (April 21) and Chernihiv (April 27).

Photo by the press service of UAF

The general goal of the "Open Football Lessons" project is to support children affected by war, unaccompanied children, orphans and other vulnerable children who have been displaced to Western Ukraine due to the conflict (the project is currently being implemented in seven regions - Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi and Chernihiv oblasts).

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 internally displaced 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.