Ammon News - PACES launched its 2021 "Sports for Development" program on July 1st 2021 targeting girls and boys from refugee camps and the most marginalized and vulnerable areas of Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon.

After a year-long interruption as a cause of the pandemic, the program returns to provide weekly football and basketball training sessions in safe spaces, free of charge, to children aged 8-16, and works on introducing life skills and values as part of the curriculum.

PACES also offers additional activities to enhance the children’s social development.

These activities include community work, arts, language, entrepreneurship, and cultural workshops in and aim to encourage the growth and development of children’s behavior, skills, and academic performance as well as to expand their cultural and educational horizons.

As part of the program, PACES targets young males and females in local communities, and builds their capacities by training and hiring them as coaches to deliver the program activities.

PACES works to benefit coaches and assistants and build their skills by offering multiple training sessions and workshops, to enhance their capabilities in delivering the program activities and allow them to acquire a set of skills necessary to enhance their employability in the job market.

Additionally, PACES seeks partnerships with local clubs and sport centers in marginalized areas and improves their capacity to become part of the development of sustainable communities.

These clubs contribute to the implementation of the program by communicating with the target groups of children and coaches, and PACES, in turn, provides the clubs with training courses and workshops to help build and develop their capacities.

PACES aims to serve over 7,000 children, 600 young female and male coaches, in addition to over 110 local sports clubs in Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon in the coming years as was planned before the pandemic.

Since establishment, PACES has succeeded in serving over 30,000 children, 2,000 young female and male coaches, and over 100 local sports clubs.

In addition, PACES’ programs promote gender equality, and have successfully reached and maintained a 50% female participation rate.

PACES will continue to work on its emergency relief initiatives launched in early 2020 in parallel to the sports for development program, in order to support individuals and marginalized communities in Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, by establishing sustainable, long-lasting partnerships with local and international institutions and civil society organizations that share PACES’ vision of empowering these target beneficiary communities.