We shine the spotlight on urban programme and PSA Foundation partners Squash Bond on International Day of Sport for Development and Peace….
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The United Nations identify sport as a universal language and powerful tool to promote peace, tolerance and understanding by bringing people together across boundaries, cultures and religions.
Its intrinsic values such as teamwork, fairness, discipline, respect for the opponent and the rules of the game are understood all over the world and can be harnessed in the advancement of solidarity, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence.
Sport programmes permit encounters on neutral territory, particularly in squash, where the court is shared by two individuals, which teaches the importance of respecting others in a shared space, fairness and rules of the game.
This message translates to how Foundation partners Squash Bond, in Israel, would like to see the values learnt through their time on court replicated in society and the local community.
Squash Bond aims to teach life skills and leadership through the game of squash. The programme brings together children from diverse segments of Israeli society to foster personal growth and cross-cultural cooperation. It also enables children to rise above economic and cultural, ethnic, religious boundaries to become empathetic future leaders of Israeli society, all whilst developing a love of squash that will stay with them for their whole lives.
Despite Israel’s many successes, one of the country’s most pressing challenges is that structurally it has a highly mixed society which rarely interact in social or educational settings. Israel is a highly diverse ethnic country, including hundreds of thousands of first-and-second generation immigrants from diverse countries.
Check out the recent media coverage of their great work:
Squash Bond brings together children from diverse segments of society for an after-school programme and summer camp for 8-18 year-old that combines intensive squash training with leadership development. The programme gives participants self-confidence in their own abilities while developing perseverance, sense of social responsibility and mutual respect for peers from different religious and socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, they participate in periodic community service initiatives and field trips that help them develop their characters and increase their social awareness and sense of belonging to the group and to Israeli society.
You can find Squash Bond in New York at the Harmonie Club, Manhattan on the 15th of April at their ‘Celebration of Hope’ event. Squash Bond’s Arab and Jewish participants will be sharing their experience of using squash for social change in Israel, including remarks by Squash Bond’s co-Founder Nitzan Moree.
Schedule:
5:30 PM Squash Exhibition and Games (optional)
7:00 PM Cocktails, Hors d’oeuvres
7:30 PM Programme
The work of Squash Bond represents a great embodiment of what the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace is about, and the PSA Foundation is proud to be supporting their work. A great example of how squash can change lives for the better and be an engine for change in uniting communities.
