Doha: The Generation Amazing Program of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) has affirmed that its launch of daily football for development sessions through its social media platforms in light of the spread of the novel coronavirus has contributed to maintaining effective communication with children and youth in Qatar and the world, and helping future generations and encouraging them to continue playing sport during an unprecedented crisis.
The Programs Director at Generation Amazing Nasser Al Khori said in a statement on the SC website: “In this time of crisis, we realised that it was vital that Generation Amazing continues with our mission of using the power of football to connect, empower and unite young people across the world. This is our duty towards youth everywhere. While social distancing required us to stop our physical programming, we asked ourselves: how are we going to keep young people active and inspired at home.”
“At the start of April, Generation Amazing decided to launch daily football for development sessions on our social media channels to help young people in Qatar and across the world stay connected, active and inspired,” Al Khori added, “We designed tailored activities for home settings that are being delivered by our coaches. These sessions are suitable for everyone and designed to help people of all ages. Anyone can tune in and perform the exercises at home by picking the correct intensity level. Physical and mental health are inherently tied to each other and we want to motivate people to get rid of stress through exercise."
“Youth from all parts of the world engage in these sessions and pose questions to their role models — which provides a memorable learning experience that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. Our youth advocates are taking the lead across many of these chats as they listen to advice from footballing icons and learn from their experiences. We have worked tirelessly with partners, including Qatar National Library and Maktaba Children’s Library, to deliver reading sessions of books which impart sporting values to young children. Sport is an important tool to share values of leadership, teamwork and discipline,” Al Khori said.
Al Khori further said: “Since our transition to online programming, we have received fantastic feedback and engagement from our Qatari and global audiences, with over 100,000 views on our live sessions over 10 exciting weeks. Of course, we faced challenges during this transition, but whether those were technical issues or ensuring an effective delivery, these challenges helped us to learn important lessons” “Online sessions can help us deliver football for development programming beyond the schools or communities we are active in. It connects us with parents and offers support at home even beyond times of crisis. We have gained the experience necessary for us to continue this delivery moving forward, allowing us to expand our programmes by utilising new technology and innovative platforms.”