Olympic Refuge Foundation to Help Displaced Communities in France
June 16, 2023
The IOC Refugee Olympic Team (EOR) will represent 100 million refugees and displaced people around the world at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. The Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) will use this opportunity to promote the inclusion of young people affected by displacement through sport in the lead-up to the games and beyond in the Île-de-France region through its flagship Terrains d’Avenir (Lands of the Future) programme.
The programme, co-financed by the ORF and the French Sports Ministry launched in October 2022. It intends to help refugees and displaced people in the Île-de-France region, including Paris, and create a sense of belonging that will set them on a positive life path through sport. The ORF is on a mission to ensure young people affected by displacement thrive through safe sport and its flagship programme plans to provide 7,000 displaced youth with access to sport by 2025.
According to the ORF, France has over 455,000 recognised refugees, over 132 asylum seekers and many other displaced people, with the majority based in the Greater Paris region. Refugees are mainly from Afghanistan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Russia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the ORF in 2017 following the participation of the EOR in the Rio 2016 Games. Terrains d’Avenir is the ORF’s very first programme in Europe. It helps to promote the Olympic values and “place sport at the service of humanity,” said IOC President, Thomas Bach. The shared aim of the initiative is to highlight how sport promotes inclusion and helps create a sense of belonging among refugees and their host communities.
In the lead-up to and during the Paris 2024 Games, the ORF will work to strengthen the programme among displaced communities living in the region. ORF Board member and film producer Joe Gebbia in partnership with the ORF is also running a campaign to change the way the world sees refugees and the role sport can have in supporting them. The campaign’s first film We Dare to Dream premiered on June 11.
The ORF has a goal for one million displaced youth to have access to safe sport by the end of 2024 and has so far reached 215,000 young people through its programming. The initiative has so far engaged 1,165 in Sport for Protection activities and trained 29 Sport for Protection coaches. It is delivered by sport for development organisations, Kabubu, PLAY international, Emmaüs Solidarité, Ovale Citoyen, Fútbol Más and the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation, with support from the Ville de Paris, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) and UNHCR France.
Following last week's ORF Board meeting at the Paris 2024 Organising Committee headquarters, Bach and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Vice-Chair Filippo Grandi visited the initiative in Terrains d’Avenir, Paris. During the visit, Bach personally invited ten displaced young people to attend an event with him at the Games in 2024. Also announced during the Board meeting were seven new Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders who are joining the Refugee Athlete Support programme and hope to be selected for the Refugee Olympic Team Paris 2024.
“Sport truly transcends boundaries and brings people together. There are few better ways to support refugees to recover from experiences of trauma and alienation than to include them in their new society through sport – we have witnessed this in action,” shared Grandi.
In addition to expanding its flagship programme, the ORF will focus attention on the Ukrainian crisis by working with sports and mental health professionals to train them in a form of psychological first aid adapted to sports settings.
Photo credit: Terrains d’Avenir, Amandine Lauriol