FIBA TAKE BASKETBALL PROGRAM TO SOUTH SUDAN
Generations For Peace and FIBA’s Foundation, the International Basketball Foundation, have partnered to bring programs to South Sudan that will use 3X3 basketball as a peace-building tool over the next three years.
Generations For Peace and the International Basketball Foundation, with the support of the South Sudan Basketball Federation and the South Sudan National Olympic Committee, will work together to develop 3X3 basketball programmes to address existing inter-tribal conflict and improve the relationship among and between youth from the Dinka and Nuer tribes in Juba. The programmes will provide a safe space for the youth from two tribes to interact, break stereotypes and build greater tolerance, trust and understanding through sport. All activities will be delivered in Area 107, a former residential area that has been converted into an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp located in the heart of South Sudanese capital, Juba.
HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Founder and Chairman of Generations For Peace, said: “We are delighted to sign this new partnership with the International Basketball Foundation. With the support of our two local programme partners, the South Sudanese Basketball Federation and the South Sudanese Olympic Committee, we will use 3x3 basketball to create safe spaces and build greater trust, tolerance and understanding among and between youth in rival tribes in vulnerable communities in Juba.”
IBF President and FIBA Honorary President Yvan Mainini added: “We are delighted with the cooperation with such a well-respected non-profit organisation as Generations For Peace. It fits very well within the strategy of the Foundation to address social and educational issues with basketball. The new 3x3 basketball discipline is ideal to support the values and objectives of the programme and addresses youngsters of both genders.”
The joint 3X3 basketball-specific curriculum led by local Generations For Peace volunteers will engage 560 youth from the Dinka and Nuer tribes, traditionally rivals in the area, in ongoing, carefully facilitated activities to build sustainable capacity to resolve conflicts without violence. Approximately 2,500 members of the wider community will also benefit from peace advocacy events sponsored by the programme. As part of the partnership, volunteers who take part in the programme will gain access to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Academy, an online e-learning tool through which they will receive a diploma upon successful delivery of their programme.
Generations For Peace established a satellite office in Juba soon after South Sudan’s independence was ratified by the United Nations in 2011, and has been working ever since to equip local Generations For Peace-trained volunteers with the skills they need to create lasting positive change in the world’s youngest nation.