CHAMPIONS ohne GRENZEN

CHAMPIONS ohne GRENZEN is a non-profit association dedicated to providing life aid for refugees in Berlin, using sports as its main tool of empowerment, joy, participation and encounter.

Football is at the centre of all of our activities. It is considered a right that everyone should have access to, be informed about and enjoy despite potential lacks of finances, language skills, playing skills, or bias concerning the country of origin, juridical status, etc. We consider sports, and especially football, as an excellent field of affirmative action for sustainable desegregation of any marginalized social group. It is also understood as a tool to activate people’s energies in good ways, that unites people and introduces them to their new living areas. By means of exclusive football practices, orientation tours in the cultural landscapes of Berlin and Brandenburg, social counseling, personal networking and paths for participation, we support refugees from all over the world on their way to their active life in refuge.

For years, we have been offering football trainings to children, men AND women throughout the city - adjusting to the needs of the particular group. Yet CHAMPIONS ohne GRENZEN is not only a regional provider of athletic offerings, but acts as an agent to mediate between athletic, social and political groups of engagement. We promote exchange and communication and identify yet ignored fields of action in refugee policies to allow refugees to actively take part in the shaping of their environment.

Football now has become the tool leading up to many more projects that - with regards to the players - offer learning facilities for language, general orientation and interpersonal or coaching skills. Also, all of our football sessions are accompanied by a peer-to-peer counselling. With regards to the broader society, we have become an actor at the intersection of formal football institutions and the players themselves providing spaces for discussion and education on related topics (e.g. hosting workshops in schools and congresses).

Football clearly isn’t the final vision. But it helps us to imagine a togetherness based on the rules of fair play and active participation as well as it strengthens and unites us and thereby keeps us going.