HIWA Initiative: Sport Component

"The Power of human empathy leading to collective action, saves lifes and frees prisoners. Ordinary people whose personal well being and security is assured join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and may will never meet...unlike any other creature on this planet." J.K Rowling

The HIWA Sport component shall help the refugee and IDP community in the KRI to develop a new lexicon of common objectives, foster cooperation and sportsmanship by promoting respectful competition and by learning to confront conflict without aggression. 
The HIWA Sport component builds on the human potentials in the refugee camps focusing on the development of the refugees by providing a civic engagement tool and platform for resonant positive and encouraging messaging. The sport component focuses on building a supportive environment and context for the refugees that has positive and long-term effects on their Intellectual, Financial, Physical, Emotional, Individual and Social Potentials. 

The HIWA Sport component's aim is: 

• To get the refugee community especially children and young adults active in the camps by creating positive experiences for them in sports and physical activity
• To create an environment that lets the children move inside the camps and integrate physical exercise into their everyday life
• To help reshaping the refugee's health and economic abilities
• To prevent losses in future productivity of an entire population/generation and millions in healthcare costs
• To deliver cognitive behavioural therapy techniques to the refugee youth by reducing anti-social behaviour and by promoting their skill building

In a global information age, soft dimensions are becoming more and more important. Sports is one of the most important soft dimension for social development and can be used as a tool for peace, social cohesion and stability, forming an effective part of today’s CVE programs. Sport offers a under-utilised platform to address ideologies and root causes of violent extremism. As the 2015 US National Security Strategy notes, such efforts will be even more important than removing terrorists from the battlefield. Sport programs foster inclusive discourse and can help to integrate a refugee community into its host community. Sport programs can also be useful to support an overall cultural diplomacy strategy in conflict situations.  Following a successful sport program implementation, campaigns can involve exchanges between athletes as a tool for building bridges and for sustaining relationships between diverse communities.

In order to challenge extremist attitudes of individuals in a community, sport programs can set the stage to counter such views and challenge their legitimacy. On a policy level, Sport helps to overcome conflict and social tensions and promotes tolerance and mutual understanding by bringing people together across boundaries, cultures and religions. This leads to the facilitation of conflict resolution and conflict prevention.