NEWS

WAVES project officially started in May 2019 and it will last 24 months with a total of seven events: four staff meetings and three international mobilities for athltes and trainers.

This one in Viterbo corresponded to the second staff meeting and it followed the first one held in Jurmala (Latvia). During this meeting the delegations had the chance to discuss the Project organization and the dissemination methodology.

The first international mobility for the athletes and the trainers was instead held in Deryneia (Cyprus) in October.

The Project's objective is to stimulate the participation in sport activities, giving importance to the social inclusion and equal opportunities for everyone, and making the participants aware of the positive effects coming from physical activity.

Another aspect on which WAVES is focused is the natural environments preservation, such as lakes, rivers and sea, through the practicse of watering and beach sports such as beach volley, beach soccer, kayaking, rowling, rafting, swimming, kitesurf, dodgeball, beach tennis, sailing e yoga.

This kind of healty sport activities aim at having a strong impact on the future as well as on the present. The target is formed by athletes, trainers, amateurs, sports managers, fisioterapists and nutritionists between 18 and 45 years old. Also the participation of volunteers is an important aspect, with the aim to promote volunteering in sport context and to allow the free access of everyone. Among the foreseen actions in this second staff meeting in Italy there were also the continuation of the transnational campaign, already started in the first meeting, about the promotion of the benefits of sport activities, particularly the watering and the beach ones.

"The realization of this second meeting in Viterbo represented for our association a big satisfaction and the achievement of a great objective. Practicsing sport at european level and involving a big number of volunteers has always been an aspiration for us. I hope that our hosts had the chance to live this experience in the best way as possible and that this could represent the beginning of an effective collaboration. The UISP objective is almost the same as Erasmus + Sport programme as it is the sport promotion not only from the point of view of the physical education, but also as a way to grow, as a source of integration and solidarity. In particular, thanks to WAVES we had the possibility to have a confrontation with other international realities that will lead to big advantages" These the words of Mr. Luca Bisti, Viterbo UISP president.

Mrs. Maria Kyriakou, president of the association named “Basiliko Athlitiko Morfotiko Orthodoxo Somateio Bamos”, declared :"It is fair to guarantee the partecipation of everyone and to favour the spread of an idea of sport as a way to unite different people and cultures. I hope that, at the end of WAVES Project, the idea of sport for and of everyone will be solid in the participants' minds, and that this can work as a promoter of similar initiatives that lead to the sharing and to the social cohesion through sport practicse."

On Saturday 7th December, starting from 10.00, in the "Terme dei papi" Conference room, the delegates held a meeting for the final conference of the Project FITS - Fostering Integration Through Sport, the other european project funded by European Commission to the UISP Comitato territoriale di Viterbo for the inclusion through sport of refugees and immigrants. A good confrontation moment and a moment of dissemination of two different projects in sport context where the UISP is the lead association and the protagonist.

The management of both the Projects WAVES and FITS and of linked european events is in charge of ACe20 agency of Orte.