Pass it Back Comes to Belfast!
11/8/17This August 21st, the magnificent grounds of Belfast Harlequins RFC will host a very special event, a community rugby festival that brings sport and development together. Young Asian women from ChildFund Pass it Back will be visiting Ireland as part of celebrations for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 and to participate in community engagement in order to support the Rugby World Cup 2017 Impact Beyond programme.
It’s a day which will see community groups interacting in a festive event over a shared love of sport, and inquisitiveness to learn more about each other’s homes and life experiences. Girls ranging in ages from 14-16 years old, from various community groups in Belfast and surrounding areas will meet their young Asian contemporaries to engage in tag rugby games on the pitch and to exchange their experiences off it.
ChildFund Pass it Back is a sport-for-development initiative led by ChildFund in partnership with World Rugby, Asia Rugby and Women Win. It seeks to empower children and youth in disadvantaged communities across Asia, and ultimately ‘pass it back’ through the medium of rugby. It delivers an integrated life skills and rugby curriculum for children and young people, encouraging them to become leaders and influencers in their own communities - a particularly important issue for women and young girls often marginalised and discriminated against in the developing world, or subject to various forms of gender based violence.
ChildFund Pass it Back was recently awarded with the UNICEF Safeguarding Children in Sport Award at the prestigious Beyond Sport Global Awards in New York.
Come along and join us on the day. There will be music, entertainment and fun aplenty in what is sure to be a carnival-like atmosphere. There is also however a more serious point to the day.
Unique gatherings like these present a great opportunity to support international development initiatives. The Irish Government, through Irish Aid, supports the work of agencies and NGO's like ChildFund Ireland in many disadvantaged and impoverished communities across the planet. We would like to sincerely thank Irish Aid and the Irish Government for supporting the ChildFund Pass it Back event in Belfast. Aside from taking pleasure in a day of sporting and cultural exchange, we hope visitors will also take home a new level of understanding about international development and lend their support to this great cause.
About ChildFund Ireland
ChildFund works in disadvantaged communities in the developing world to support children and their families in a host of practical ways. Our work is empowered by the generous support of The Irish Government through its medium for Official Development Assistance (ODA), Irish Aid. ChildFund’s ‘Communities Caring for Children’ programme (CCC), supported by Irish Aid, seeks to stabilise life for young children and give them the best possible platform for their physical, cognitive and social development. Numerous community support programmes in health, education, training (including GBV and gender equality awareness) and managing household finance, are designed to ensure that children and their primary carers are focussed and supported in placing children’s needs centre stage – including the right of children to be free from all forms of violence and exploitation. Our child sponsorship programme allows donors to play a supporting role in the life of a vulnerable child as they journey through the education system and hopefully, a more stable adult life with greater opportunity. Find out more at http://www.childfund.ie/