(ATR) Announcing the fund for NOCs’ programs focused on refugees, IOC president Thomas Bach says the Olympic Movement wanted to take quick action to help those involved in the “terrible crisis unfolding across the Middle East, Africa and Europe”.
The $2 million fund will be made immediately available to NOCs and other interested parties, who are asked to submit projects. The IOC and Olympic Solidarity are each contributing $1 million to the emergency fund.
“We have all been touched by the terrible news and the heartbreaking stories in the past few days. Sport and the Olympic Movement wanted to play its part in bringing humanitarian help to the refugees,” Bach said in a statement Friday.
“We made a quick decision that we needed to take action and to make this fund available immediately.”
“We have a long term relationship with the United Nations and with the UNHCR and we draw on their help and expertise,” he added.
“We know through experience that sport can ease the plight of refugees, many of them young people and children, be they in the Middle East, Africa, Europe or in other parts of the world. Our thoughts are with the many refugees risking their lives and the lives of their families to escape danger.”
Amid the worsening humanitarian crisis, with thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing their war-torn country – and the escalating migration problem – the IOC chief vowed that assessment of NOC projects and distribution of funds “will be carried out extremely quickly”.
“We are able to work on the ground with our partners in the National Olympic Committees and the expert agencies to get help to where it is needed most urgently.”
The IOC works with a number of UN agencies to help refugees around the world. In April 2014 they signed an agreement to strengthen collaboration. Last year IOC honorary president Jacques Rogge completed his first mission as a UN special envoy, raising awareness about the conditions of youth refugees and the impact of sport on their well-being on a visit to Syrian youngsters living in the UN camp of Azraq, located in the desert 100 kilometers east of Jordanian capital, Amman.
The Olympic committee has partnered with UNHCR for two decades, with thousands of refugees benefiting from sports programs and equipment donated by the IOC.
The IOC and UNHCR currently run a “Giving is Winning” program, which allows athletes, Olympic sponsors, NOCs, international federations and other Olympic Movement stakeholders to donate clothing to help refugees. The IOC said the campaign has already collected over 170,000 items of clothing, which have reached refugees in 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.
Reported by Mark Bisson
Around the Rings
