The Real Madrid Foundation travels to the occupied Palestinian territory

west bank

Palestine refugee children in the West Bank often suffer detrimental psychological effects from the harsh realities of the ongoing Israeli occupation. Settler violence, demolitions and displacements, and decades of political unrest and entrenched poverty leave in a considerable psychosocial impact. For many UNRWA students, school is a safe haven where they can receive support and temporarily find respite.

The Real Madrid Foundation (RMF) ‘Social  Sports School’ programme is one of many activities undertaken in partnership with UNRWA to provide psychosocial support and relief to students. The second edition of the programme was recently launched in the West Bank and Gaza. Staff from the Real Madrid Foundation traveled to Ramallah from 21 to 23 March to implement a training for 24 UNRWA physical education teachers from the occupied Palestinian territory. The training was created with two objectives in mind: improving students’ psychosocial skills through football exercises and developing their technical football skills.

One part of the teachers’ training was applying their newly learned coaching skills on 50 UNRWA students whilst being monitored by the RMF staff.

Now that they have completed  the training, these physical education teachers will apply their skills throughout the academic year for up to 1,100 students at participating UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza.