In the past two years, almost 200 Romanian coaches have been trained to prevent the emotional, verbal or physical harm of children in a sports context.
For the past two years, the Terre des hommes Foundation has worked with the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions, the Romanian Football Federation and the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, as well as trained professionals in several sports, to improve their child protection skills. The Foundation has also made an impressive array of new and complex resources on this subject—from online courses to textbooks, brochures, infographics, podcasts and webinars—available to them and the public. These can all now be found for free on the website www.tdh.ro and the platform www.childhub.org.
Moreover, we have initiated strong partnerships with these institutions and developed a complex document together describing the procedures for the safety and protection of children in sports. Twenty various sports clubs around the country signed this policy (September 2021) of concrete measures to protect children from any form of violence (physical, verbal, psychological). Among the measures included was the designation of a resource person (focal point) with whom children can speak safely and receive advice and guidance.
Children must be protected from any form of violence and exploitation that may occur in the context of sport activities: staff communicating inappropriately with children, invasion of children's privacy, or if the training exceeds their physical and psychological limits.
Terre des hommes Foundation started this project (in Romania), on this basis, to prevent violence against children in sports - Keeping Children Safe in Sports.
The resources created with the help of specialists, i.e. textbooks, guides, games, an online course and webinars, remain available to coaches and the general public. Among these, the latest "Guide to Good Practice for the Safety of Children in Sports", is a useful tool for professionals, but also for parents. It can be found at: https://childhub.org/en/child-protection-online-library/best-practices-… on www.tdh.ro (currently, English version only).
The “Keeping Children Safe in Sports” project is also being implemented by Terre des hommes Greece, together with Terre des hommes Hungary. “Keeping Children Safe in Sports” is co-funded through the European Commission's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Program (REC 2014-2020).
