Description of pledge activities

The Opal Foundation for Talent Management will  increase the diversity within their programme and the relationship between healthy lifestyles, school performance, sport and social skills. We aim to organize a series of programs that reach a wide range of children, especially in marginalised areas, and emphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle and physical activity in everyday life. We want to give these children the opportunity to participate in various activities, in addition to the football and martial arts sessions that are currently the focus of the project.

Within this context, we plan to provide sports equipment to enable children living in marginalised areas to learn more about sports and physical activity. In addition, we plan to invite sports experts, nutritionists and registered dietitians to the municipalities that we are working with. This would allow us to bring awareness of the fact that a healthy lifestyle can be affordable too.

It is also important that children develop the ability to work together towards a common goal, thus adding another aspect to the primary and secondary socialization arena. Our aim is to help children find the sport they enjoy most by introducing different sports and incorporating it into their daily routine. As we have been in close contact with the municipalities participating in the program for many years, regular follow-up is easily possible.

Additionally, we want to create a gamification program for young people, where they can collect points through healthy lifestyle and sport related activities (which can be done online), which they can redeem for health and environment prizes every month.

Expected measurable outcome

• Reinforce the love of sport and the environment, we plan to organize a hiking and running team, where children can experience the thrill of major running events and the most beautiful landscapes of our country during the hikes.
• Support children who are moving towards a professional career, we plan to organize sessions where we can work with different sports clubs to combat isolation within the team.
• Provide accommodation to the children, which will receive mentoring. This is because sporting opportunities in marginalised areas are limited and travel is often not feasible due to distance. We would also like to work with the clubs to implement a talent management project for the children who are placed in dormitories, which will also help them to recover.
• Produce a collection of publications about/of the results and the experiences.
• Have a high number of young participants become part of a programme that can then become a self-sustaining mechanism in their everyday life and give talented children the opportunity to develop further in this direction.