CEV School Project to help prevent social isolation in Iceland

In March, the officials responsible for the delivery of the CEV School Project ‘Play Volleyball – Grow with it’ across Iceland, Guðrún Kristín Einarsdóttir and Thelma Dögg Grétarsdóttir, had an online meeting with a PE teacher from a suburban school which has a lot of immigrant kids. This meeting took place because a lot of them are not participating in free time leisure activities that are provided to them after school hours. This resulted in the thought to start a small project to introduce and encourage the children of immigrants to be a part of School Volleyball, especially since most of them are already familiar with the game. 

During March, the Icelandic officials have been planning how it could be best to deliver this project and the teachers they have talked to have all been extremely interested and want to be involved in this. This project could get more kids involved and with more participation, especially from minority groups such as immigrants, it could help prevent isolation. With this, kids would be given a social ground working together with sports. Moreover, there is the hope of getting clubs in the same area involved as well. 

The next step is to host a meeting in April with schools in the Breiðholt area because there are many immigrant children going to school there and with the help of Reykjavík City, the goal is to unite these schools to find a common platform and play Volleyball. 

During March, a tournament for boys under the age of 20 was held. Six teams participated in thereby accounting for 81 boys from all over the country: Afturelding (Mosfellsbær), Þróttur Reykjavík (Reykjavík), HK (Kópavogur), Völsungur (Húsavík), Þróttur Nes (Neskaupstaður) and KA (Akureyri).