Mission Statement
The Global Sport Fund promotes and supports efforts by organizations worldwide to use sport to help prevent drug use and juvenile delinquency, based on the concept that gainfully occupied young people are less likely to get involved with substance abuse and criminal activity.
Global Sport Fund
25 October 2007 - Football's universal language brings together Middle Eastern youngsters and coaches
23 October 2007 - Winning is not the main goal
22 October 2007- GSF camp kicks off in Lebanon
19 October 2007 - Global Sport Fund Football Camp Unites Middle Eastern Youth Against Drugs and Crime
26 June 2007 - The Global Sport Fund awards first grant to NGO on International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Qatar National Olympic Committee (QNOC) partnered in 2005 in a ground-breaking agreement to establish the Global Sport Fund. The Fund, made possible by a generous contribution from Qatar, will:
- Provide grants to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for projects that use sport to prevent drug use and criminal behaviour among young people;
- Sponsor events, youth camps and exhibitions; and
- Hold raining seminars for coaches and training seminars for coaches and young people.
GSF-supported activities will be models for what can be accomplished by sport on the field and off, strengthening communities by helping young people choose better lives.
A history of success
The creation of the GSF was inspired by the success of UNODC and QNOC in organizing the 2003 Football without Borders camp that brought together young people from Qatar, Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait. Through football participants learned tolerance, respect for themselves and others, and the importance of making ethical choices. A training module, the "Coaches' Guide for Using Sport to Teach Healthy Life Skills", produced as part of Football without Borders, allows the lessons of the camp to be used by coaches, teachers and organizations worldwide.
UNODC, QNOC and sport
UNODC and QNOC have long been leaders in the innovative use of sport as a drug and crime prevention tool.
UNODC activities include:
- Public awareness campaigns using star athletes to target young people with a "Sports not drugs" message.
- Basketball without Borders youth camps used sport to teach tolerance, leadership and healthy life skills.
- Support for local clubs and teams that promote sport as a way to teach young people about living a healthy, drug-free life.
QNOC's youth activities include:
- Programmes for young people with special needs. Special Olympics International recently recognized His Highness Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, president of QNOC, for his care and support for people with special needs in Qatar.
- Sponsoring competitions that strengthen the ties of friendship and respect among Qatari athletes and their counterparts in other nations.
- Funding the construction of world-class facilities throughout the Middle East and North Africa to make sport available to young people in those communities.
QNOC is also providing facilities at its Doha headquarters to house the GSF and the newly opened UNODC office.
Sport is about more than competing and winning; it is about participation and inclusion, physical well-being and self-confidence, respect and tolerance. It is these aspects, and the ability to reach otherwise hard-to-reach populations, that give sport the power to positively influence young people of all nationalities.
The Global Sport Fund (GSF) supports using the power of sport to teach healthy life skills to young people to prevent anti-social behaviour, such as drug use and crime, and to provide an alternative for young people who want to make positive changes in their lives.
Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani,
president of QNOC
Contact
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Vienna International Centre
PO Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria
Telefax: (+43-1) 26060-5866
Telephone: (+43-1) 26060-0
www.unodc.org
