In August and September, the Romanian Football Federation participates as a partner in the project “Keeping Children Safe in Sports”, implemented by the Terre des hommes Romania Foundation. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation and the National Authority for the Protection of the Child’s rights and Adoption also joined as partners.
The project runs for one year, is funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Program of the European Union and has as general objective the promotion of safety and protection policies for children in sports in Romania and Greece.
Safety in sports refers to the prevention of any form in which the child may be adversely affected – emotionally, verbally, physically or sexually – in spaces where he does performance or recreational sports.
Safeguarding policies are extremely important and necessary, as they aim to protect children and young people who play sports, defend the integrity of sports organizations and promote the values of sport.
During the course, Paul Bercea, Alina Dumitru and Cristina Vladescu, trainers of the Terre des hommes Romania Foundation, present the basics of safeguarding, focusing on ways to raise awareness, approach and resolve situations where there are abuses of any kind on children. Methods of recognizing their behavior, methods of communicating with children and parents or other stakeholders are discovered and taught through practical exercises, role-plays and examples of real situations.
The 20 participants from different niches of the sport (football, gymnastics, handball, basketball, etc.) have the opportunity to share their negative experiences, to exchange good practices and to learn from real examples.
Between September 2020 and December 2020, during the project there will be organized 20 training sessions on children’s safety and protection, where 120 entrepreneurs from 20 clubs in Romania are going to be invited.
More than 120 children and young people will benefit from information sessions on safety in sport and mechanisms for reporting potentially risky situations for them (October 2020 – July 2021).
Also, next year safeguarding standards will be accredited so that clubs can be certified in this field.
Webinars and materials on this topic can be found on the European ChildHub platform and on the UEFA dedicata safeguarding.
