Education and sport must be accessible to all children

Around 1,500 children from 12 municipalities in Montenegro learnt to read and write and trained in football for free.

Our member NGO Parents from Montenegro has completed the project "Learn and Play – Equal Opportunities for Education and Sports for All Children" which ran from February to June 2024 and involved around 1,500 children from 12 Montenegrin municipalities. The project concluded last Saturday with the "Learn and Play" football cup, during which around 400 boys and girls, aged 7 to 10, played and socialised. The main message of this event to the authorities was that sports and education must be accessible to all children.

The main activities of the project included literacy workshops for children who had not yet mastered reading and writing skills, as well as free football training sessions. The project was funded by the UEFA Foundation for Children, and the NGO Parents partnered with the Football Association of Montenegro, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Sports and Youth, and the Municipality of Mojkovac. The project included primary schools and football clubs from Mojkovac, Plav, Berane, Žabljak, Kolašin, Rožaje, Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje, Nikšić, Danilovgrad, Zeta, and Podgorica.

"We have shown that sports can be inclusive and that boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, or religion are overcome on the field. We proved that the playing field is a place where everyone feels accepted. We wanted to provide additional free activities for girls and boys from the northern municipalities and remind them of the importance of having such support," said Tanja Ašanin from the NGO Parents.

The UEFA Foundation for Children has financially supported dozens of projects worldwide annually that enhance children's rights to education, sports, and health. The NGO Parents is the only organization in Montenegro that has received support from this competition for three consecutive years.

Through the social services it provides, the NGO Parents has been conducting numerous activities for years aimed at supporting children in education and sports.

For further information, contact Kristina Mihailovic, CEO at NGO Parents.