„Streetfootball for Tolerance" from Ostfildern at the 2nd festival „Futból Callejero" in Paraguay

„Everybody plays, everybody wins", is he common motto of this yea's festival . More than  100 youngsters from all over South America, met in Asunción for a week, to play, learn with each other and exchange experiences.  Jessica (17 Jahre), Manuel (16 Jahre) and Greta (17 Jahre) from Ostfildern (close to Stuttgart) joined as well. „They are playing with quite similiar rules to ours, and same like in our project: the grassrootfootball is not in main focus of all projects", says Jessica: „there are many workshops taking place here, where we discuss why we are engaged in such projects and was has changed for us through beeing in the project."

To demonstrate, how they re teaming in their project in Ostfildern, , Jessi, Manuel and Greta  orginzed without furher ado a freindly match between Brazil and Paraguay. „Our friends in South America can choose between Fair-Play Agreements. We do negotiate them." Says Manuel. Now they want to continue sharing methods and experiences. The next opportunity they have  in January: it is then, when they meet their freinds of Argentina and Paraguay here in Ostfildern.

What experiences they made, what impressions Jessi und Manuel have and waht they want to integrate in their project, they will introduce the 14th of Dezember at 5 p.m. at the Zentrum Zinsholz. Everybody who is interested is invited to listen.

The exchange in Paraguay was part of the „internationalen Sportprojekte" at the Landessportverband Baden-Württemberg and was supported by  KICKFAIR.

Teamer from Ostfildern take part in the second „Encuentro Sudamericano de Fútbol Callejero"

It ist the second time after 2005, that the South American network „ Fútbol Callejero" organizes an „Encuentro Sudamericano de Fútbol Callejero". During the last week of November 2007, about 180 youngsters from all over South America gather in Paraguay to exchange knowledge and to play football together. Also invited are youngsters from the project in Ostfildern (close to Stuttgart).

Like in the first network meeting 2005 in Buenos Aires, it is not the traditional football that plays an important role. The main focus is on the concept of „Fútbol callejero", that -in many points- is similar to the method „Streetfootball For Tolerance" beeing played here: girls and boys are playing in mixed teams, there are no referees (Teamer are accompanying the games) and the rules are beeing defined by the teams themselves. Fair Play counts as much as scored goals.

In all 13 projects that are members of the South American network, the concept „ Fútbol Callejero" plays a central role in the daily project work. In cooperation with the Programm Integration durch Sport (Landesportverband Baden-Württemberg), KICKFAIR works with Defensores del Chaco (Argentine) and the Centro para el desarollo de la inteligencia (Paraguay), both founding members of the South America network, on the further development of this method.

The main focus of the cooperational work is actually the development of a common curriculum for a qualification program of Teamer here and there. In Asunción, next to the project leaders, youngsters from the three projects will exchange knowlegde and experiences to that topic. In January 2008 the curriculum will be finalized and discussed with experts from different sciences and practicakl work. The curriculum will then be accessible for all projects in the network and beyond.

„Football and Global Learning“ Meeting in Berlin

Experts discuss the use of football as a tool for global learning

„Fußball – Lernen – Global“ (Football and Global Learning) is a project involving schools across Germany that connect football with global learning. On November 8th, 2007, selected experts from various fields (football and sport, education, development, etc) will closely examine the project’s aims and discuss the possibilities and limitations of football as a method to promote social, intercultural and global learning.

The basis of the discussion, along with garnering expert opinions, is to establish the current status of knowledge and experience in the field of Football and Development and to systematically compile this information for future reference. The results of the discussion will influence the further development of the project and will be presented in the first Football and Global Learning publication. The publication will be available as of February 2008 from KICKFAIR e.V.

It is not competitive football but rather communal learning that is at the centre of the Football and Global Learning project. It uses the enthusiasm of young people for football to introduce issues of global learning. In this way, school children not only discover various possibilities within their own social environment but are also able to understand their global context. Through international learning partnerships, the pupils develop projects together with partners from other parts of the world, bringing into context various ways of life from around the globe.

In a pilot project in 2006, school children from Germany and Argentina jointly developed a picture book about the eventful life of a football sock. Currently, young participants of the streetfootballworld network member CDI in Paraguay together with school children from Ulm in southern Germany are working on a calendar. In these processes, football is used to spark communication and joint initiatives. The project Football and Global Learning is able to initiate contact with partners in other parts of the world and accompanies the joint educational process.

Football and Global Learning is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is being implemented under the auspices of streetfootballworld. The streetfootballworld network member KICKFAIR e.V. is responsible for project management. The Institute for Peace Education in Tübingen is a cooperating partner.

League for Fairness, Tolerance and Civil Commitment

Axel Schulz opens KICKFORMORE

At last: It’s the 21st of July, 10.30 a.m. Axel Schulz gets out of his car and is immediately surrounded by his fans of the KICKFORMORE project. He is happy, just like the kids. They have met each other before, in February, when the former boxing-pro came to visit the project for the first time. “Axel is cool, he talks to us, he wants to know who we are and what we do. He cares about us”, says 14-year-old Mert, participant of KICKFORMORE in Ostfildern. “I enjoy being the patron for this project. Here, the youths learn important rules which they need beyond the football field to cope with everyday life”, answers Axel Schulz when asked for his motivation for becoming patron for KICKFORMORE.

As ambassador of the internationally operating Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, he is especially concerned about social projects connected to sport. This is very much appreciated by the “Streetfootballers for Tolerance”. Since 6 a.m., more than 30 youths are working on the location of the event, to assure the success of the opening. Football Courts are assembled, tents are set up, benches are dragged to the place and the stage is hammered together. “Another reason why I get involved with this”, says Schulz during the press conference, “is the fact that the kids give me something back in return: They don’t care how many fights I’ve won or lost, they’re just happy that I’m there for them”.

In the “Celeb-Match”, Miriam Mayer-Vorfelder (director of KICKFAIR), Roland Mall, Buffy Ettmayer (both ex-pros for VFB Stuttgart), Christof Bolay (major of Ostfildern) and Axel Schulz played against the KICKFORMORE All-Star-Team (youths from all towns involved in the league). During the negotiations about the “Fairplay Points” in the match, different views where discussed: Whereas Mrs Mayer-Vorfelder stated that you should not be allowed to grab other players by their shirts (like it happened to her) and Mr Bolay insisted that there should be no far shots, Mr Schulz simply demanded that everyone should play a fair game. Compared to that, the All-Star-Team made rather different demands: To be happy for the other team when it scores a good goal, to treat the other team with respect, and to talk reasonably in the “dialogue-zone”. When it comes to goals, the celeb-team won, when it comes to fun and fairness, both teams were winners.

KICKFORMORE currently connects 6 local “Streetfootball for Tolerance”-projects in Baden-Württemberg: In the towns of Ostfildern, Renningen, Mössingen, Offenburg, Sinzheim and Bad Friedrichshall. In addition to regular playing following the rules of “Streetfootball for Tolerance” and the involvement of the participants in all organization processes, the game concept is linked to civil commitment in the community. Those who get involved in the community get something back in return: Support in school, in their working- and everyday-life. The project offers support.

For more information on the project visit www.kickformore.org

From KICKFORWARD to KICKFAIR e.V.

KICK FORWARD, core project in the streetfootballworld-network right from the start, reaches a new level in its project work with the foundation of the charitable (NGO-) association KICKFAIR. It began four years ago with the organization of small Streetfootball for Tolerance competitions and reached a preliminary peak in 2006 when KICK FORWARD was nominated official project in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development by the German UNESCO commission. It is now supposed to expand further and develop in terms of content with KICKFAIR as a new representative. A certain number of exciting projects, cooperation efforts and tasks have already been started by KICKFAIR, like the development of the approach “International learning partnerships: Streetfootball for Tolerance as a Field of Social Learning”. Together with other core projects of the streetfootballworld network, like Centro para el Desarollo de la Intelligencia (CDI Paraguay), Defensores del Chaco (Argentina) and Esperance (Ruanda), a curriculum is developed which can be used for the training and advanced training in the particular projects.

Another project is the development of the methodological-didactical material suitcase dealing with football and global learning. In cooperation with the Erich-Kästner-Schule Ostfildern learning contents and teaching concepts concerning international partnerships, Streetfootball for Tolerance and global learning - made by pupils for pupils, are developed (available for schools in fall 2007). Yet another project focussing on schools is “Football - Learning - Worldwide” (“Fussball – Lernen – Global”. Supported by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and realized by the project-executing organization Streetfootballworld and its cooperation-partner Institute for Peace Education (Institut für Friedenspädagogik (IFT)), football is being used as learning-incentive and learning-content, and connected with approaches to Global Learning; it is being advanced as an educational approach and offered to schools nationwide. With the Streetfootball for Tolerance League KICKFORMORE (www.kickformore.org), KICKFAIR currently links Streetfootball for Tolerance with a social credit-system in all of Baden-Württemberg. KICKFAIR intends to involve the youths in the project permanently and wants to integrate their social commitment into the community.

The young person is always at the centre of all projects. KICKFAIR creates spheres of learning and experience, in which young people can acquire the competence they need for a positive attitude towards their everyday-life tasks. In different fields of activity, they learn how to deal with the demands of an increasingly global society. They are actively involved in the various projects’ design processes, take responsibility and thus become co-designers of their own sociological environment.

www.kickfair.org