FREE TO PLAY TOGETHER

The project "Free to play together" aimed at showing the importance of sport as a mean that favors the phisical well-being and the integration of disvantaged people.Thanks to the work done by the staff and, in particular, by the educators and by the nutritionists involved in the 5 partner countries, all the objectives were achieved. Different activities were realized: preparation activities (public conferences, drafting of the call for the selection of participants, meeting with the participants selected), activities of dissemination, monitoring and evaluation, but the key activities were theoretical and practical workshops with the professionals of the project, as well as sports workshops managed by the staff. The topics dealt with made young people very curious, as much space was given to their interests. These activities were realized in the five countries at the same time. Furthermore, 2 international meetings were very important to favor the coordination of the staff of the partner organizations. The first meeting was held in Giungano (Italy) and the second in Skopje (North Republic of Macedonia-). Unfortunately, it was not possible to hold the last meeting due to covid-19 pandemic.The participants selected were aged beetween 6 and 30 years; the Italian, Polish and Macedonian participants were mostly between 6 and 14 years old, while the participants from Estonia and Greece started from the age of 12 to go up.During the international meetings, specific tasks were assigned to the various partners and the work was organized taking into account the different needs of the young people involved. The most important topics addressed were the importance of sport as a tool that helps people to live better, both thanks to the benefits it has on everyone's health, and thanks to its ability to promote the social inclusion of disadvantaged people, such as the disabled; the importance of erasmus projects based on the promotion of the sport activities; the importance of sport as a mean of aggregation of people belonging to different cultures.The different staff purposed same special and interesting activities with the aim of putting into practice what has been learned during the theoretical lessons: the Estonian and the Polish team, for exemple, have embarked on the adventure of cooking workshops, of doing lectures with the nutritionist and of implementing sport activities like zumba and Taekwondo classes, so all the implemented initiatives aimed at promoting the importance of sport as an occasion to collaborate and socialize and to introduce to kids the importance of proper nutrition in order to avoid eating disorders during the growth phase. An other interesting type of activities were those realized with the volunteers; they were involved in training activities and in the different events realized with the participants.We can say that the project achieved the desired results, in fact the young people involved have shown that they have learned the principles of healthy eating and the importance of sport as a tool that promotes physical and moral well-being, representing a means that favors the inclusion of disadvantaged people. Following the evaluation carried out through written and oral tests, the young people showed themselves aware of the importance of this project and more predisposed to play sports and to welcome disabled friends in their games and in their life in general. Participants with disabilities, on the other hand, became more aware of their physical abilities and of the possibilities of integrating through sports. The citizens and all the stakeholders of the 5 countries involved appreciated all the project activities and they participated in the public ones.