Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Manila: The Asian Football Confederation won silver in the prestigious Asia Sports Industry Awards (SPIA) on Friday in Manila, the Philippines.
The AFC’s key social responsibility project AFC Village was awarded the prize under the ‘Best Sports CSR Initiative’ category. The announcement came on the eve of Saturday's official inauguration of the AFC Village in Palo, Tacloban.
AFC Social Responsibility Committee Chairman Mr Ahmed Eid S. Al Harbi and the President of the Philippines Football Federation Mr Mariano Araneta received the award at a scintillating ceremony.
Mr Ahmed Eid S. Al Harbi said: “This is a great honour for the Asian Football Confederation and we are very proud of the AFC Village. The AFC works together with its 47 Member Associations and our various social responsibility partners to spread the joy of football and to help people in need, as we have done in the AFC Village in Tacloban in the Philippines.”
The AFC Village has been realised under the AFC President’s Initiatives assistance programme. The project was initiated to help victims of the Haiyan/Yolanda typhoon, one of the strongest storms in history, which hit Tacloban in the Philippines in 2013. The disaster destroyed the community, killed thousands and left the survivors homeless.
Another CSR project by one of the AFC Member Associations, Football For All Vietnam, also received a gold award for best youth programmes and a silver award for best sports participation.
FFAV was founded on the initiative of the Football Association of Norway (NFF). The NFF and FFAV are working closely with the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and relevant government institutions and partners in Vietnam to create a model for grassroots football in the Thua Thien Hue province in central Vietnam.
FFAV is a membership organisation and actively promotes girls’ football, with a 50/50 girl-boy participation rate as a condition for membership. FFAV uses football activities as a tool for teaching fundamental life skills, such as HIV/AIDS awareness, high risk education on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW), personal hygiene and sanitation, communication skills, traffic safety etc. The different focus areas are defined by, and based on, the requirements of the members.