Sport Partnerships

DRC / CAR Refugees / Central African refugees practice capoiera in front of an audience at Mole camp in Equateur Province, DRC on 21 August, 2014. Capoiera, originally a Brazilian sport which is a mix of music, dance and martial arts, was introduced in Mole two months ago as an organized leisure activity. Refugees quickly found that it offers not only good exercise, but that it brings people together in a way that contributes to peace building. / UNHCR / B. Sokol / August 2014

On average, displaced young people spend their entire childhood away from home. Thrust into a strange new world, life can be an uphill struggle. But sport can play an important healing role.

We have used sport to build peace and understanding in communities, as well as a vehicle for protection and learning programmes. One such programme is in Uganda, where we have partnered with the ‘Young African Refugees for Integral Development’ (YARID) to promote peaceful coexistence with host communities through soccer.

We are also working with partners including the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jesuit Worldwide Learning, the World Taekwondo Federation, and SCORT Foundation to develop sports programmes for displaced communities. These programmes build and enhance valuable protection, project management and community development skills, and can even help young people to become sports project facilitators and coaches. In addition, they can also act as a gateway to further learning and opportunities.

Sport also helps us to raise awareness of refugee issues. In 2016, UNHCR and the IOC partnered to bring the first ever Refugee Olympic Team to the Rio Olympic Games, dramatically increasing worldwide visibility of refugee issues.