PESHAWAR
\nTo mark World Refugee Day, when she was attending a handball session of the Terrains d\u2019Avenir program, Masomah Ali Zada, Chef de Mission of the Refugee Olympic Team Paris 2024, highlighted the important role of sport in supporting the integration of refugees and displaced people in their new communities.
\nAhead of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the Olympic Refuge Foundation is working through its Terrains d\u2019Avenir program to remove barriers to accessing sport and sporting spaces in the French capital.
\nThis year, World Refugee Day focuses on solidarity and solutions for displaced people, and as a program, Terrains d\u2019Avenir aims to welcome displaced people into the local sporting community, while providing a solution to support them in building their new lives.
\nSpeaking from a sports center in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, not far from the Olympic Village, she said: \u201cPlaying handball with these women once again reminded me of the impact sport can have when you arrive in a new country as a refugee. It allows you to integrate into a new community; it gives you hope. Most importantly, it\u2019s a tool for you to navigate some of the challenges of being a refugee – it\u2019s a space where you can forget and play.\u201d
\nShe said: \u201cI met a woman from Sri Lanka called Cindy, which really touched me. She is 66 years old and comes to play handball with these women every week. It has been an incredible way for her to integrate, talk French, socialize and do sports.
\nI could see how much it meant to her in her eyes; she would stay even after the session and watch others. After 66 years, it was her connection with this new society she came into. For me that\u2019s what sport can do for the refugee community.\u201d
\nAs Chef de Mission, Masomah is the face of the Refugee Olympic Team \u2013 representing not only the 36 athletes who will take to the field of play at the Olympic Games in Paris, but also more than 120 million displaced people around the world.
\n\u201cFor me, the Refugee Olympic Team is about giving refugees access to elite level sport. But it\u2019s also important for me to be here at this handball session, because we need to do more to give refugees access to sport at all levels. By welcoming them into our sporting communities, we give them a vital tool for hope, and motivate them to keep going.\u201d
\nThe women-only handball session is one of more than 30 weekly sport sessions delivered through the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF)\u2019s Terrains d\u2019Avenir program. The sessions are free and open to all.
\nThe initiative uses a diverse offering of sports – including climbing, basketball, running, taekwondo, boxing and dance – to support the inclusion of displaced young people in their host communities in Paris and the wider \u00cele-de-France region.
\nThough spread across Paris, the program focuses on the north-eastern part of the city \u2013 the epicenter of the Paris 2024 Games \u2013 where there is a high concentration of displaced people, and where barriers to sport are particularly high.
\nToday, Masomah attended the R\u00e9fugi\u00e9s : solidarit\u00e9 et responsibilities conference, where she spoke alongside Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and once again called on the audience to consider how to improve access to sport for refugees and displaced people. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi delivered a video message to those in attendance.
\nMasomah is going to visit the \u201cSport and Refugees\u201d photo exhibition, which is a collaboration between the Ville de Paris, UNHCR and the ORF being launched Thursday, and which is on display throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
\nHaving fled her home country, Masomah Ali Zada was part of the Afghanistan women\u2019s cycling team. She competed for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in the Tokyo 2020 time trial event, and became a member of the IOC Athletes\u2019 Commission in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR To mark World Refugee Day, when she was attending a handball session of the Terrains d\u2019Avenir program, Masomah Ali Zada, Chef de Mission of the Refugee Olympic Team Paris 2024, highlighted the important role of sport in supporting the integration of refugees and displaced people in their new communities. Ahead of the Olympic Games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-413593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n