The Coordination Center of the Ukrainian Football Association has begun preparations for the implementation of the "Open Football Lessons" project to help internally displaced children in Chernivtsi Oblast.

On April 27, a training session took place in Chernivtsi for local volunteers involved in "Open Football Lessons" from Chernivtsi and Novosilka communities (the head of the oblast association is Vasyl Orlytsky, regional coordinators of the project are Serhiy Zadorozhnyak, Oleksandr Plakhov, and Vasyl Balanuk).

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 Yevhenii Stolitenko as well as online involvement of leading instructors Viktor Tvardovskyy, Serhiy Cheshyk, Lianna Kopilova, Yuriy Lutsenko, and Oleksiy Lazarenko.

Prior to this event, similar preparatory training sessions were already held in Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil, Zakarpattia, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts.

Photo by the press service of UAF

The general goal of the "Open Football Lessons" project is to contribute to the protection of children affected by the 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—Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernivtsi oblasts).

Photo by the press service of UAF

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

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

— To offer 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-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.