The International Olympic Committee has announced a $2m fund for sports projects focused on refugees amid the groundswell of concern about the plight of people fleeing conflict and hardship.
Under the programme, national Olympic committees will be asked to submit applications to the IOC for project funding, which will be made available immediately.
“We know through experience that sport can ease the plight of refugees, many of them young people and children, be they in the Middle East, Africa, Europe or in other parts of the world,” said the IOC president Thomas Bach.
“We have all been touched by the terrible news and the heartbreaking stories in the past few days. With this terrible crisis unfolding across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, sport and the Olympic Movement wanted to play its part in bringing humanitarian help to the refugees. We made a quick decision that we needed to take action and to make this fund available immediately.”
The IOC has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the past 11 years on their “Giving is Winning” programme, which has enabled athletes, officials and sponsors of the Olympics to donate tens of thousands of clothing items to help refugees.
The IOC announcement follows moves by football clubs in Germany to show support for migrants. Bayern Munich announced on Thursday that they would be donating €1m (£730,000) to help the city’s refugees, while banners welcoming them were displayed by fans at a number of German grounds last weekend.
English football supporters groups are planning to follow such examples by bringing “Refugees welcome” banners to matches, co-ordinated with help from a Twitter campaign, @RefugeesEFL.
