GSF Youth Camp set for Cote d'Ivoire in the last week of October

September 8, 2008 Approximately 150 youngsters between the ages of 14 to 17 years old are getting ready to take part in the Global Sport Fund Youth Camp that is to be held in Côte d'Ivoire between 27 and 31 October 2008.

The boys and girls, who will hail from Bénin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinee, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sénégal and Togo will train under coaches in football and basketball, as well as participate in-class sessions on fair play, respect and tolerance, substance abuse awareness and cultural exchanges. Participants are expected to have a fun-filled week that embodies the spirit of sport and will see them graduating as GSF Youth Ambassadors.

On their return to their communities, the youth ambassadors will train their peers and help to set up and expand similar programmes for youngsters to take up active sport while strengthening their social and life skills.

The Doha-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and its partner, the Qatar Olympic Committee, graduated 66 Youth Ambassadors at its first youth camp in Jounieh, Lebanon in October 2007. They will again join forces in Abidjan to bring the GSF concept of sport and coaching to kids from the Francophone countries.