QF And Generation Amazing Expand Ability Friendly Football Program For Children In Qatar

Qatar Foundation and Generation Amazing are expanding their inclusive football program to ensure it can open up sporting opportunities for more young people with disabilities across Qatar.

The QF Ability Friendly program offers the chance for affordable community sports classes to become more easily available to children and adults with special needs, including those with physical, mental and visual impairments, deafness, and Autism, as well as other learning challenges.

From this month, the program will be offered at Qatar Academy Al Khor and Qatar Academy Al Wakra, both of which are schools under Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Pre-University Education. Sessions will take place a safe and supportive environment and will involve experienced coaches from both partners.

QF and Generation Amazing – the social legacy program of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy – have trained coaches to deliver inclusive football classes. QF’s Ability Friendly Program has been operating for over two years in Education City and has since offered hundreds of children and adults the opportunity to participate in regular football classes, just as their siblings would do in mainstream classes, and now this focus on accessible sport is be extended to even more locations throughout Qatar.

“The QF Ability Friendly Program with Generation Amazing is proud to be training and upskilling coaches to offer inclusive football opportunities for people with disabilities across Qatar, and we look forward to continuing to grow our ability friendly movement worldwide to ensure people of all abilities continue to have full access to high-quality sport,” said Amy Johnson, Director of Community Engagement, QF.

“This expansion continues to expand on everything the QF Ability Friendly program and Generation Amazing have already achieved, and we are extremely excited about the future.”

Ryan Moignard, Senior ASD/Special Needs Football Specialist and Coach at QF, said: “Sport is universal, something for everyone to enjoy regardless of their age and ability, and at QF we are committed to ensuring that all members of society can feel the benefits that participating in community sport brings – reflecting the inclusive and accessible nature of our organization.”

Nasser Al Khori, Generation Amazing Programmes Director, said: “Generation Amazing works in close alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and inclusion – Sustainable Development Goal 10 – is a core Generation Amazing programme cause.

“We continuously develop innovative ways to empower and support children of all abilities with the football for development training we provide. This exciting training collaboration with Qatar Foundation will help us to achieve this objective across the country, and we are grateful for the excellent knowledge exchange and support of our strategic community entities on this journey.”

The expansion of the program is the first step toward building a broader program designed to cultivate a nationwide inclusive community sports and fitness culture for all people with special needs.

Each of the new program’s sessions will cost QR30. For more information and to register for the program’s sessions at Qatar Academy Al Khor and Qatar Academy Al Wakra – which will start on March 21 and April 11 respectively – please download the new Education City app, which is available via Google Play and the Apple Store.