A remarkable social inclusion project is using football to help unite Jewish and Arab children in Israel.

Jennie Hambleton and Mick Baikie from The FA's International Relations team, together with Derby County's Hat-Trick Officer Richard Astle, recently returned from the Football 4 Peace project in Israel, which aims to bring divided communities together and highlight co-existence in areas of tension.

Based around the northern regions of Nazareth and Galilee, the social inclusion project uses football as a way of uniting children, aged 9-14, from the local Jewish and Arab communities.

The project teaches the children how to deal with conflict and celebrate success together and FA Regional Football Development Manager, Mick Baikie believes that the project clearly compliments The FA's Respect agenda.

"The main focus of the project is to get Jewish and Arab children to respect each other, play fairly and to work together as a team," he explained.

"At the beginning of the week the children were hesitant to integrate with each other, but within a relatively short space of time, carefully planned activities meant that they learnt to work together, communicate and trust each other."

Jennie Hambleton said: "It was great to see Jewish and Arab children playing together and respecting each other. One elderly Arab observer commented that he was witnessing something he had not seen since he was a boy playing football back in the 1930's, which tells you how significant this project is, and the power of football to integrate communities."

The project culminated in a Festival of Football for over 600 children, where Jennie assisted in the presentation ceremony, awarding fair play plaques to teams who had shown the most respect to others.

The FA will now assist the project to make it more sustainable and to help facilitate the community sports managers in Israel to take the concepts forward in their local communities.

The innovative methods used to unite communities will also assist Richard Astle in the development of a manual and a short course that can be used for Hat-Trick coaches and across grassroots football.

FIND OUT MORE
Click here for more information about the Football 4 Peace project