The area of al-Aamel is typical of Baghdad’s recent history as a symbol and epicentre of terror and ethnic cleansing. With its mixed population of primarily Sunnite and Shiite communities Al-Aamel became the scene of intense hostilities. Also the sport scene was targeted when young players were maimed or killed during training by a bomb hidden in the pitch. Later the perpetraitors were either captured or flushed out of the area. Today, a new sport complex has been build by the municipality - which during 17 – 24 October became the venue of the first Open Fun Football School to be implemented in al-Aamel. A total of 222 boys and 12 girls (178 being Shiite and 49 Sunnite and 7 Kurdish children and youth) participated at the OFFS. The football school follows suit with a strong value driven vision: a pressing desire for the building of reconciliation and peace-full co-existence in the local communities. And coming together at the Open Fun Football School constitutes an important building block for dialogue bolstering security and development. Apart from municipality representatives - and police forces present to monitor that everything went well - also the local mullah and imam of the Shiite and Sunnite communities took part in the opening ceremony of the 5 day Open Fun Football School. In printed media the activities in Hi al-Aamel were covered by Al-Bayna, on TV a news piece was broadcast by the Al-Rasheed channel.