Sport - The Bridge | streetfootballworld

Location

Ethiopia, Switzerland

Key achievement

Teaching social values to street children using football for 10 years

Sport - The Bridge

Network Member

Aid agencies estimate that nearly 600,000 children live on the streets in Ethiopia. With many children working to escape poverty (estimates show that 40 percent of children start to work before the age of six), a lack of education, child prostitution and begging are rife.

Sport – The Bridge aims to reintegrate street children into their families and public schools. Sport lessons are used to prepare children for life in the family and foster their personal development. Simultaneously, the families of the children receive assistance, laying the foundation for successful reintegration.

The programme is based on the idea of ‘help for self-help’. In line with its dual approach, Sport– The Bridge‘s national project in Switzerland promotes intercultural understanding. Using sports and games, the organisation promotes direct encounters between people with different cultural backgrounds, seeking to promote mutual understanding and reducing barriers.