RIGHT TO PLAY AND THE EMBASSY OF THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS ORGANIZE A SPORT & PLAY DAY IN CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY & THE U.N. CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

On Sunday, November 23, 2008, Right To Play, an international non-governmental organization that builds life skills in underprivileged youth, will launch its new program in Jakarta. It will realise this by hosting a Sport & Play Day for 400 youth living in state-run children’s homes in East Jakarta. The Play Day will launch Right To Play’s new program resource, Team Up!, which promotes cooperation & teamwork and builds valuable life skills among youth, ages 13-15.

“Life Skills help youth face challenges,” according to Suratman, Right To Play’s Project Manager. “Most government and NGO programs for youth focus on vocational training. Right To Play focuses on life skills, such as confidence, respect and cooperation so that youth can lead independent lives.”

The Play Day will be held from 8:30am – 2:30pm at the Bumi Perta recreation area in Cibubur, East Jakarta. In the morning, the youth will take part in structured sport & play activities featured in Right To Play’s new Team Up! manual. After lunch, there will be a speech on children’s rights by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and possibly a football clinic hosted by Edgar Davids, a Dutch professional football star (to be confirmed).

This event is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to celebrate International Children’s Day and to launch the Embassy’s new fund for Sports & Development. This fund focuses on achieving development goals through sports and play, and aims at financing sports activities with a positive development impact initiated by Indonesian NGOs and other institutions. Edgar Davids has committed himself to the same goals in his activities as an Ambassador for the Dutch Street Soccer Federation, an organisation aiming to use sports and the development of life skills for street youth to contribute to a tolerant, multicultural society. On August 31, 2008, he presided over the Edgar Davids Back to School Tournament in Rotterdam. However, due to personal circumstances, Mr. Davids participation cannot be confirmed until Saturday.

Furthermore, the Dutch Embassy sees this event as a worthy closing of the Holland Weeks, which were organised from 10 until 23 November to celebrate the excellent relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands and to show the Dutch commitment to cooperating with Indonesia in development issues.

Right To Play is an athlete-driven international humanitarian organization that uses the power of sport & play to benefit children living in challenging circumstances around the world. Since September 2006, Right To Play has delivered training to over 650 community leaders in Aceh, who implement structured sport & play activities regularly for 10,000 children, in partnership with UNICEF and Dinas Sosial. These activities are primarily for children from ages 2-5 and 6-12.

In 2009, Right To Play will open a Jakarta office and provide its unique style of structured sport & play activities to youth, ages 13-15, living in children’s homes managed by the Department of Social Affairs.

The new Team Up! program resource has four objectives:

• Increased ability to manage emotions; reduced stress and anxiety; improved coping skills
• Increased ability to understand and respect different viewpoints; improved ability to problem-solve
• Increased capacity for positive, healthy resolution of inter-personal conflict
• Increased cooperation and sharing; improved sense of optimism and positive perspective of community

Indonesian media are welcome to come watch Jakarta youth tackle the Spider’s Web, build Team Trust, overcome Emotions on the Run and destroy stereotypes in Stigma Attack, as well as a variety of other specially designed sport & play activities. The event is not open to the public, however.