With 70 participants - including 25 women and four different religions - from seven countries across 2 continents, the 10 - day pilot camp will come under the global spotlight following the initiative’s announcement earlier this year which was met by worldwide acclaim as a serious project that can help to make a difference.
Over the next 10 days, the delegates from Jordan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Sudan and Sri Lanka will participate in an intensive training programme comprising practical sporting sessions; peace education and specialist training in conflict resolution amongst young people. In addition, each delegate will be given training to cascade their learning to like-minded leaders of youth back in their own countries.
HRH Prince Feisal said: “This a very proud yet humble occasion for me; proud because Peace Through Sport carries on the great Jordanian tradition of actually implementing peace programmes; humble, because these inaugural Peace Through Sport delegates are giving up so much time and energy to become pioneers of peace around the world. I am determined that with their help, Peace Through Sport will make a real difference in a troubled world”.
The Pilot Camp is a landmark occasion for HRH Prince Feisal in particular who created the vision and has spent the past two years developing its realistic goals and objectives.
“This Pilot Camp will enable us to analyse and monitor the activities so that we can fine tune the training in advance of the roll out the full programme of training camps in 2008, when we expect hundreds of potential leaders of youth from many more countries to attend the camps,” said HRH Prince Feisal.
A key element will be training the leaders of youth to be able to cascade the programme in their own countries after the training; in other words training the trainers to train more trainers. In addition life-long friendships and mutual support will continue long after the training has been completed.
Under the chairmanship of HRH Prince Feisal, Peace Through Sport is supported by a high level Advisory Board consisting of some of the sporting world’s key opinion formers and leaders of sport and peace, including Olympian, Dr Rania Elwani of Egypt and Nawal El Moutawakel, the former Olympian who has just been appointed Minister of Sport for Morocco.
