A one-year football and dabke course for vulnerable young people in Sebastia, aimed at promoting psychosocial wellbeing, cultural rootedness and the inclusion of new Palestinian generations in an increasingly acute emergency context.
CONTEXT & OBJECTIVE
For decades, the Occupied Palestinian Territories have been living in a condition of progressive crisis. The separation wall, Israeli settlements and restrictions on freedom of movement fragment the social fabric and isolate the most marginalised communities. Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in 2023, the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated dramatically: raids, detentions, checkpoint closures.
Sebastia is a village of just over 3,000 inhabitants a few kilometres from Nablus. In this context, children and young people are growing up in conditions of increasing insecurity and isolation, with fewer and fewer opportunities to access cultural heritage and safe spaces for socialising.
Bringing Sport to Palestine
The Sport for Youths project - built on the experience of 2025 - aims to replicate the activities of the previous edition with a second group of beneficiaries, ensuring continuity and offering new opportunities to young people who had not been able to take part in the first edition. Through football and dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance, the project builds a space for personal growth, cultural expression and community belonging.
Dance is also a tool for female empowerment: the course is reserved for girls between 13 and 16 years of age, creating a safe space for public expression in the historic Elbad Hall, located in the centre of Sebastia.
The Osama Hamdan Troph
The final five-a-side football tournament is open to surrounding villages and is dedicated to the architect who devoted his life to the development of Sebastia and Nisf Jubeil: a gesture in which sport, memory and community come together.
