The city of Odessa has become another location in the geography of the Ukrainian Football Association's project "Inclusive Football Sections." The project is managed by the Odesa Oblast Football Association and the NGO "Sports Shelter," with training sessions held at the "Architectural" educational and training base (trainer - Vasyl Fedoryaka, coordinator from OOFA - Serhiy Halyza).

Photo by OOFA

In Odessa, organizers conducted a survey among parents of section participants, asking them to share their observations and answer questions about how the project affects their child's development.

Parents' Responses

— "Socializes. Has a sense of success";

— "Has a positive impact. Goes to training with great pleasure";

— "The child enjoys the trainings, is among other children, learning how to interact with both kids and adults";

— "The child attends training happily. He insisted on buying special shoes for training himself. Improved understanding of requests, coordination, and comprehension of 'right' and 'left.' We are very pleased and grateful to the coach and all those involved in this project";

— "The children have become more communicative and persistent";

— "My daughter has become more active, calm, attentive, balanced";

Photo by OOFA

— "The child goes to every training with great pleasure. The little one tries to train independently, repeats ball tricks, and studies football players";

— "About half a year into the training, my child understood what it means to be a goalkeeper (i.e., protecting the goal and deflecting the ball). And this happened just last week. So, of course, for me, this is success and great credit to the coach. I am very grateful that we have such a coach and that there is such a project";

— "Interaction with other children, good mood. The child attends training happily. Yurik really enjoys the sessions, the coach, conversations, and ball games";

Photo by OOFA

— "My child with special educational needs has improved interaction with 'typical' children. Once, they trained with real athletes a bit older than my boy. And after training, they approached their coach and said: 'Thank you, coach!' My child watched this attentively and respectfully approached her own coach, repeating both the greeting and the manner of greeting one-to-one. This was very touching";

Photo by OOFA

Main Goals of the Project UAF:

— to improve the psychoemotional and physical state of children with disabilities and special educational needs through their involvement in project sports activities and socialization;

— to change Ukrainian society's attitude towards people with disabilities and children with special educational needs;

— to provide access to inclusive sports training;

— to reveal the child potential;

— to unite children and adults regardless of physical or mental development characteristics;

— to motivate mass football for all children, regardless of abilities, gender, social problems;

— to activate local communities through intersectoral networks (teachers, coaches, psychologists, parents, youth leaders, local authorities, patrons, etc.).

Thanks to UAF, the sections are provided with children's football uniforms, balls, and necessary sports equipment.