Doha: The Generation Amazing Foundation, a FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 legacy initiative, has launched a new sport and cultural exchange programme after successfully reaching 1 million beneficiaries.
The new programme, titled ‘Goal 22: Football, Social Impact and Sustainability’, is a first-of-its-kind youth exchange project that aims to empower young people who are passionate about football. It will teach key life skills through physical and virtual workshops led by Generation Amazing’s network of delivery partners.
Youth from all 32 competing nations at Qatar 2022 will take part in Goal 22, which is being delivered in strategic partnership with the Ministry of Sports and Youth, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Qatar Football Association, Qatar Foundation (QF), Qatar Museums, FIFA Foundation and UNESCO.
Sponsors include Qatar Airways, Visit Qatar, Qatar Fund for Development, Qetaifan Projects, QLM Insurance, SDIsports and Hublot.
Goal 22 will be delivered in three phases. The first was delivered virtually and involved students learning about sport for development principles, along with key subjects including quality, diversity and inclusion. The second phase will be held during the upcoming Generation Amazing Youth Festival at Education City in Qatar, with the final instalment to be held both virtually and in-person as students map out social development opportunities in their own communities.
HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of QF, said, “Qatar Foundation is incredibly proud to be a strategic partner of the Generation Amazing Foundation and to have hosted the Generation Amazing Youth Festival since 2019.
“Now, just ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, we’re delighted for this year’s event and its subsequent programme, Goal 22, to celebrate students from all over the world. Young people in Qatar and beyond will be given the opportunity to learn from each other in one of the most dynamic and unique student programmes to ever be held during a World Cup.
“Part of our ethos at QF is to ensure sport is used for the benefit of young people and we share this belief with the Generation Amazing Foundation. Together, we have delivered multiple programmes that empower children and young people, equipping them with the skills and tools to champion accessibility, sustainability and education.
“Goal 22 represents a new chapter for the Generation Amazing Foundation. We look forward to continued success in the future, and the impact this legacy program will have both in Qatar and beyond.”
HE Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General, Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, and Chairman, Generation Amazing Foundation, said, “Throughout the years, the Generation Amazing Festival has always been an example of utilizing major sporting events to bring young people together to celebrate the power of football. This year’s launch of Goal 22 builds on this element to unite not only people from the region, but representatives from all 32 nations participating in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. It’s testament to our goals of making a regional and global impact through the Generation Amazing Foundation.”
Since being launched during Qatar’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup, Generation Amazing has implemented football for development projects in 35 countries. Since 2019, it has united youth from across the globe during the annual Generation Amazing Festival.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, “Since the beginning of our partnership with Generation Amazing, we’ve successfully collaborated in using football to empower young people in Qatar. Today, we’re delighted to widen the impact of this partnership to all participating nations through the Goal 22 program, leaving a lasting legacy well beyond the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”
Mauricio Macri, Executive Chairman, FIFA Foundation, said, “The FIFA Foundation is committed to tackling social issues affecting young people and supporting education through football. With Goal 22, we are empowering students from around the world with new skills that will help them to become social and sustainable development champions within their communities.”
Generation Amazing operates in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, promoting inclusion and gender equality in its football for development programme. The programme’s unique methodology teaches life skills, including communication, leadership, teamwork and organization.
During the Press conference attended by representatives of strategic partners and sponsors such as Qatar Foundation, Qatar Tourism, Qetaifan Projects and SDI Sports, Executive Director of Generation Amazing Nasser Al Khori reviewed the details of the announcement of the Generation Amazing programme’s Goal 22, which includes holding the annual festival.
Al Khori explained that this year’s annual festival was being held in conjunction with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, given that the festival started in 2019, coinciding with hosting the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019, in a strategic partnership with Qatar Foundation and other local partners. He added that the festival this year will kick off on November 16, pointing out that this year’s edition is different and unique because participants are distributed around the 32 countries to participate in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, in addition to the fact that the programme extends to a full academic year.
Al Khori said that the concept of the programme was to work with many strategic partners and sponsors, in addition to schools from the 32 participant countries, to utilize football for development and positive change, as well as to take advantage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 to shed light on social issues related to the youth in different societies, empowering them and providing them with opportunities to use football for growth and development.
He concluded by saying that the new programme was an international school-student exchange to be held for the first time in a global forum such as the World Cup.
For her part, Advisor to the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) Secretary General and Marketing and Communications Director for Generation Amazing Foundation Moza Al Mohannadi said the new programme announced at the Press conference includes Goal 22 - for a global sports and cultural exchange which includes the participation of delegations of international school students from countries whose teams are participating in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Al Mohannadi also referred to the important announcement during the conference that Generation Amazing has reached one million beneficiaries.
Al Mohannadi confirmed that this achievement was a promise made by the foundation since its inception in 2010, fulfilled before the end of 2022, and even before the kickoff of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, making it an achievement to be reckoned with for the Foundation, which aspires to achieve even more and will not stop there. She added that Generation Amazing seeks to attract the largest number of beneficiaries worldwide, which is the hoped-for legacy of the foundation, with the aim of building a promising generation of young people and targeted groups in less developed and developing societies.
Al Mohannadi noted that the most important initiative on which the foundation builds its programmes is football and the game’s popularity, for development and investment in sports and various fields related to community life.
Moza Al Mohannadi concluded her statement by saying that since Qatar is the host country of the World Cup, it used football for development, with the football for development initiative (f4d) being a tool for growth and development for young people in the targeted communities.
Al Khori said the foundation festival was an annual festival that started in 2019 in conjunction with the organization of the FIFA Club World Cup event by the State of Qatar, indicating that the idea of the festival aims to attract young people in the framework of a cultural exchange process and highlight the principles, values and skills of Generation Amazing and the use of football through the World Cup event as a means of development.
He added that the vision of the festival this year was able to gather participants from 32 countries participating in the championship through the presence of representatives of international schools, in addition to representatives from our Qatari schools, and the foundation focused on the youth presence in the World Cup events.
Regarding the foundation’s upcoming events, he said that the foundation has many events and programmes in preparation to be a special institution for the Amazing Generation within the legacy of Qatar 2022, it is expected to be launched during the upcoming festival next November.
HE Director of Business Development at Qetaifan Projects Sheikh Nasser bin Abdulaziz Al Thani expressed his happiness and pride to be present at this important event for the Generation Amazing foundation of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
He expressed his support for the foundation in its various programmes, thanked them and appreciated the launch of this wonderful programme, adding that he is one of the official sponsors with the foundation in the implementation of its programmes, in addition to the partnership with many institutions, companies and events in Qatar and abroad.
His Excellency stressed that this partnership and this support from him as a national institution comes to consolidate the values he believes in, as is the case of the partnership with Generation Amazing Foundation in consolidating the principles of sports for development and exploiting the World Cup event in the implementation of awareness, development and support programs for young people and athletes in Qatar, the Gulf, the Arab world and the world in general during and after the World Cup, pointing out that the northern island of Qetaifan will have many entertainment events starting from November 7 next until the end of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
For his part, Director of Events at Generation Amazing Foundation Jassim Mohammed Al Ali said that this year’s edition of the programme and the festival will be different and more distinctive, as it includes students and youth participants from 32 different countries of the world from all continents, pointing out in a statement to QNA that the organization of the World Cup festival will be held in the Oxygen Park in Education City in cooperation with the strategic partner Qatar Foundation.
He highlighted that the festival will include workshops, training courses and special activities for young people in the framework of teaching them the basic skills required to be leaders of change in their communities. (QNA)
