Goalball to Feature in Friendship Games for First Time

The third "Friendship Games" will take place from 7-8 July in the Great Lakes region of Africa: two days of trans-border sports competitions intended to promote peace and unite young people. 03 Jul 2012

The delegation from the Rwandan Paralympic Committee (NPC Rwanda) held a Sitting Volleyball training and theory session from 28-29 April. in Rumbek, South Sudan.

ⒸNPC Rwanda

By IPC

This is the first year that Rwanda will participate in the Friendship Games alongside athletes from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Peace and Sport, l’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport” has jointly organised the third Friendship Games in Gihanga, Bubanza province in Burundi which will bring together more than 250 young people from 9 to 15 years old, from several different communities located on all sides of the border.

This is the first year that Rwanda will participate in the Friendship Games alongside athletes from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 2-day event will this year include 6 new sports disciplines, including goalball, a Paralympic sport for visually impaired athletes.

Through the universal values of tolerance, respect and fair-play that sport conveys, the Friendship Games in the Great Lakes of Africa will show young people from all three countries that they can understand each other, communicate and coexist peacefully. A key message to build the foundations for sustainable peace in this region that has suffered many decades of conflict.

The Friendship Games take place each year. They are the culmination of an extensive peace-building program which uses sport to encourage the process of national unity and ethnic reconciliation in the Great Lakes region.

Last year, the Friendship Games were held in Luvungi, in South Kivu.

“Peace and Sport, L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport” is a neutral and apolitical international initiative based in the Principality of Monaco and placed under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, who is also on the International Paralympic Committee Honorary Board.