How can sport and peacebuilding be combined?

The project "Sports4Peace" (Sport for Peace) makes this possible by organising workshops in which sports teachers from different partner schools throughout Rwanda learn to use sport as an instrument of conflict resolution. Since 2012, this workshop has been held once a year with about 25 participants. This is possible through the support of the LSB (federal sports association of Rhineland-Palatinate), Ministry of the Interior and the Lotto Foundation. The LSB and the coordination office in Kigali are responsible for the organisation and implementation. The "Sports4Peace" (short S4P) seminar combines knowledge and methods for imparting social skills through sport with peace education methods. The use of sport for peace education and social skills is in line with the 'Sport for Development' approach. At the S4P seminar, particular attention will be paid to the feasibility and relevance of sport in everyday school life. In the case of peace education, care is taken to ensure that conflicts in the school context or regional conflicts are addressed in addition to the everyday handling of conflicts. The sports pedagogical games and exercises will be modified so that they can be implemented for larger groups and with little material expenditure.

First, a comparison is made between the traditional trainer role and the trainer role in Sport for Development (SfE) to illustrate the sports pedagogical focus. The various fields of action of SfE (e.g. health, education, inclusion, life skills training, etc.) will be presented and then we will go into more detail on the topic of promoting peacebuilding (also in cooperation with the Rwandan peace organisation UMUSEKE) and violence prevention through sport. The presented exercises and games aim at teaching social skills in a playful way. Experiences on the playing field should be transferred to experiences in everyday life and offer suggestions for social action. For example, after a form of practice with a football match without rules, the importance of rules for everyday playing together but also for everyday living together will be discussed.

At the end of the S4P seminar, a Sport for Peace Day is traditionally held, inviting 150-200 children and young people from the Kimisagara/Kigali area to take part in the all-day games festival. The sports teachers will organize the event together and will give a short demonstration in which they will independently put what they have learned into practice for the first time. The new methods and skills are demonstrated in 30-minute rehearsals in the classroom and on the sports field in groups of three teacher.

A regular evaluation is carried out for the S4P seminar. The course will be evaluated by the participants, by feedback and questionnaires, the speakers, by reflection, and after the follow-up phase by the coordination office of the RLP/Rwanda partnership.