Winter break for Welcome through Football participants of FC Emmen Naoberschap

23 December 2021

Winter break for Welcome through Football participants of FC Emmen Naoberschap

It’s winter break for the participants of the Welcome Through Football project of FC Emmen Naoberschap. On Friday afternoon 17 December, the football project at the AZC (Asylum Center) in Emmen, in which twelve weeks of working together, playing football, and learning from each other was central, was successfully concluded.

©FC Emmen Naoberschap

25 young refugees participated in Welcome Through Football. After the last training, all participants received a certificate from the social football trainers of FC Emmen Naoberschap. In addition to the 24 football training sessions, spread over twelve weeks, various workshops were also planned. The different workshops will be enrolled during the next phase of the project. Unfortunately, the workshops could not be held due to the current coronation measures.

Bram Jakobs, one of the FC Emmen Naoberschap social football trainers of the project, has enjoyed the past twelve weeks: “Every week the children left for their AZC homes with a smile on their face. That gives me a lot of satisfaction as a trainer.”

Welcome Through Football has been organised at AZC in Emmen for a number of years. At each stage it is possible for new participants to join in. This also happened in this final phase, and project manager Marcel Sulmann is very pleased about this: “I look back on the final phase of Welcome to Our Football with a good feeling. The cooperation between FC Emmen Naoberschap, AZC Emmen and neighborhood sports coach Hidde Beekman has created a good basis. The fact that we can welcome new, enthusiastic participants in this project at every stage shows that the project really adds value.

The Welcome Through Football project is made possible by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, the UEFA Foundation for Children, EFDN and M&GEZOND! In this project, FC Emmen Naoberschap works together with, among others, Werder Bremen, Everton FC and Shaktar Donetsk to exchange knowledge and learn from each other.