SAVE Project

As a project, SAVE  involved 42 participants from Bulgaria and from Romania. There were mainly young people, the students, with their teachers. Foreign delegations have been welcomed by the Territorial Committee Cirié Settimo Chivasso of the national association UISP (Unione Italiana Sport Per tutti).

The aim of the project was to raise awareness of the rights, opportunities and duties connected to European citizenship, mainly on the issues of non-violence in sports. SAVE's objectives were as follows:

• Sharing experiences and ideas among young people from associations and schools from the project partner countries (Bulgaria, Italy and Romania) during the study visit

• Discuss future cooperation possibilities

• Emphasize youth sport as a means of inclusion and as the best way to prevent violence.

Main activity during the project took place in Turin and Cirié, Italy: as soon as particpants came to Italy, they were acquainted with UISP members and with their activities. Workshops and round tables have been organised on no violence and ultras support in different sport activities and alternative sports without fights and violence. Moreover, in an event, kids were divided into groups and asked to create banners to express their ideas on fairplay and no violence, using their creativity. Representatives of each group showed the banners and commented for the public important messages on respect and fairplay in sport.

Leaders of Bulgarian and Romanian groups, as well as Italians, prepared some presentations in order to make their activity and their country known to all participants. Participants shared experiences and ideas and discussed future opportunities of cooperation. They focused on youth sport as an instrument of integration and violence prevention. Football and volleyball tournaments were organised with mixed teams, without distinction of age, sex and country.

Several cultural moments were organised in addition to a sightseeing of Turin with its monuments and its famous places, participants visited “Reggia di Venaria Reale”, the Savoy Royal Residence recently renovated, comparable to the French royal residence of Versailles and claimed world heritage of mankind by UNESCO.

As media to disseminate the ideas of this project, partners created a website, a CD-Rom and a brochure to communicate a correct life style, non violence and non discrimination.

Project started in October 2007 and concluded in April 2008