NFE in sport

 Session Objectives:
• To promote the values of solidarity and peace
• To raise participants skills in conflict management
• To stem violence and foster reconciliation

Description:

Step 1 (10 minutes):
Explain the game:
• Ask participants to sit in a circle.
• Explain that this will be an opportunity for them to share their personal experiences on incidents of violence or tension that have happened to them while playing sports.
• Encourage them to share stories about people being aggressive to them or them being aggressive towards others.
• Explain the rule that the person who has the ball is the one who is allowed to speak, while the rest of the group listens respectfully to their story.
• In order to make them feel safe and confident, as well as make them understand how this works, start by sharing your own experience, as an example for them to follow.

Step 2 (60 minutes):
Start the activity:
• Conduct a short brainstorming on the phrase “violence in sports”, asking participants to give specific examples (ex. verbal abuse, mocking, hitting, vandalism etc.).
• Ask everyone to take 5 minutes to reflect on their own experience in sports and chose one incident of them as victims, one as perpetrators and one as bystanders.
• Ask participants to share their experience with the group. The speaker needs to hold the ball while sharing and then pass it to the next one.
• After a participant shares their story, ask them to chose a physical exercise (ex. jump 10 times, do 5 push-ups, run around the circle 2 times, score with the basketball etc.) which should be delivered by all members of the group who had had a similar experience while practicing sports.
• Try to encourage all participants to share at least one incident each.

Debriefing: (20 minutes)
After the activity is over, the group should start the debriefing process:
• Was it difficult to open up and share their experience? How did they feel about remembering these hard/uncomfortable moments?
• Why did this violent situation happen?
• How did they feel when this incident occurred? Why did they behave the way they did?
• How could they have behaved differently? What could have been done to prevent the incident from happening?
• What do they understand by the word “tolerance”?
• What do they understand by the word “reconciliation”?
• Why are these values important to sports and how are they related?

These questions are only indicatory – you can change them, add or eliminate some, as you wish.