Sport & Relation-building

There are a lot of theories of how to build up relationship between people, but there is no certain recipe for it. Despite this, everything that Cross Cultures does have something to do with building relations between people who have been in conflict with each other. We use the children’s grassroot sport as a tool to build friendships and sport cooperation in divided communities in our aim to contribute to the normalization of the everyday life in the post conflict countries.  

 

The reason for using sports as a tool to stimulate peaceful co-existence, gender equality, tolerance and social cohesion in the countries and communities affected by war and ethnic conflict is that the sportsground is a neutral place to meet. Sport creates a freespace, where the focus is on the joy of the game, and everyone are players instead of different nationalities. When you play a game, like football, all the involved parties become a “we” and an “us”, which creates a feeling of solitude.
Furthermore, sport contains different aspect of educational and democratic elements, like fair play and teamwork, which is easily transferred into the behavior in the everyday life.

 

Our second tool for stimulating the peaceful co-existence is the children. All parents want their children to have a good childhood, and that is why it is possible for parents from both sides of a conflict to meet and cooperate with focus on the children’s future.

 

In our aim to contribute to the normalization we have some key measures that we use, which all influence and are influenced by building relationships. First of all we do our best to lead in the relation between the people that we work with, instead of in the position of a leader. We trust in bottom-up processes in achieving our goals which means that we try to keep the organization of Cross Cultures and the projects as flat as possible. We work as a movement in the different regions driven forward by the work of volunteers, whom are the spin of our work. The volunteers are primarily instructors, coaches and assistants at the OFFS, and in their work we lay out the guidelines, but we trust in them to make the OFFS.

 

The trust between us and them is a part of building up a co-dependent relationship, which we form with them in the way that we describe as “gift-exchange”. When you exchange gifts it gives the involved people the possibility to be part of a relationship, that is continually, dynamic and open. The reason for this is that it is a natural consequence for the receiver of a gift, to give back a gift. The gift are not necessarily materialistic things, like the materials that CCPA brings, but are just as well the time that the volunteers spent on the OFFS.

 

When we, in our way of considering sustainability approach, focus on social responsibility, civil social engagement and organizational structure, it is to make sure that when we feel that the country are ready to lead the OFFS themselves, it will still be open for all regardless background and differences. It should stimulate the civil society, so different stakeholders can engage in mutual interests, bond and interact with one another freely, and thereby stimulate the development of an active and peaceful civil society. Finally we want the OFFS Programme to become financially sustainable, which we do by rooting our ideas among the local politicians and authorities, so they feel a responsibility for the continuing the activities.

 

In order for these three steps to make sure that the OFFS becomes sustainable, the involved people must take responsibility and work together in insuring this. When people have a job or an activity in common, they have something both of them can relate to and build a relationship from. Working together on a project builds up a relationship between the involved parties, and from this teamwork the relationship can involve into a friendship.

 

As written further up, children’s grassroots football is more than the children and playing sports. It creates a platform in the civil society, where people can come, bond and discuss children, welfare, the future etc. OFFS actively involve a lot of different stakeholders, like parents, school teachers, local sponsors, politicians, Ministry of youth and sports among many others, all the while focusing on the children’s welfare. We work within the civil society approach developing strategies through workshops, to bring all the different stakeholders into play, and thereby establishing a sustainable platform for the stakeholders to bond and interact.

 

In the OFFS our primary focus is the children. Through OFFS we want to educate them to become happy and healthy children building relationship with other children. In this work we focus on the environment, the motivation and the Fun Football. We want to create at psychical and social environment, where the children feel confident and respected, so they feel that they are free to express themselves. Our prime motivation is that it is fun, and we use games as the leading element. Through all our work we constantly ask ourselves if the things we do were fun. If there is something we can do to make it more fun. The reason for this is, that we you have fun you feel joy. Everyone can relate to the feeling of joy, it has no cultural boundaries. When you feel joy, you let go of some of your boundaries, you often laugh and smile, and you open yourselves up to one another, and through that you can relate to each other.

 

All these different aspects are a part of the complex work of building up relationship between the involved people and it is possible to read more about it in the menu to the left.