We want to live in a world in which people not only take but also give. But we also have to set an example ourselves. At the beginning of the year we sat down with Rüdiger “Rudi” Heid from buntkicktgut, the intercultural street football league, and told him about our fundraising campaign.
Rudi already knows the RESWITCH training method because Tammo was involved with the buntkicktgut selection team for two years and of course also included RESWITCH in the training. That's why we know that buntkicktgut stands for respect, tolerance and fairness and conveys these values through football. Football brings us together and even more through buntkicktgut. We told Rudi that we wanted to support buntkicktgut because their mission helps children and young people and we want to do our part to ensure that things continue in the same way in the future.
One percent of our sales revenue for 2020 will go to buntkicktgut and we will of course round the amount up! With your purchase you are helping to support children and young people through football.
We conducted a short interview with Rudi so that you can find out what buntkicktgut is all about!
Rudi, how did the idea for buntkicktgut come about?
That was in 1996 during the wave of refugees caused by the Yugoslav war. My colleagues and refugee workers at the time, Hans-Peter Niessner, Memo Arikan and I came up with the idea of using football to solve and loosen intercultural and language barriers among young people. The league then consisted of ten teams. It has been running under the name buntkicktgut since 1998. We now have well over 2,500 participants in over 200 teams from over 100 different countries of origin in Munich alone.
How do you manage to get young people from all parts of the world excited about buntkicktgut?
This enthusiasm and power is primarily generated by the ball. As soon as it comes into play and rolls, the first bridge has already been built. Football speaks a language that everyone in the world understands, that knows no social boundaries and that connects and unites a wide variety of cultures and nations. buntkicktgut is also a street football league for children and by children.
Does the intercultural street football league only run in Munich?
No. In addition to Munich, we have buntkicktgut locations in Berlin, Hamburg, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Düsseldorf and Dortmund as well as in rural regions such as Upper Swabia and Lower Bavaria. Contact with the individual cities often occurs directly through youth centers or social authorities who like our concept - and who then contact us. We move over 4,000 children and young people every week throughout Germany - with 150 training sessions in schools and city districts.
Rudi, we are happy to support you with the fundraising campaign! See you soon!
THIS is buntkicktgut:
The intercultural street football league from Munich brings together young people from a wide variety of cultural, social and national backgrounds - and has been doing so since 1997. In summer and winter. With the ball, children and young people learn in sports that mutual tolerance and fairness are the basis for peaceful interaction. You are the creators of the league - as players, on the league council, as buntkicker editors, referees or street football workers. Participation, integration and identification are the basic pillars of buntkicktgut. The roots lie in the refugee work in Munich in the 1990s, when it was not only the “Yugoslavia War” that caused a new wave of immigration. Rüdiger Heid and his colleagues met this challenge with football and an organized league for refugees, which is now open to everyone. In addition to Munich, there are other buntkicktgut locations in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Hamburg, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Lower Bavaria, Upper Swabia, Zurich and Basel as well as in Togo. buntkickgut reaches over 4,500 young people every week throughout Germany. Children from all over the world – connected and united through football.
Check out the buntkicktgut page and find out which projects you support with your purchase from RESWITCH: http://buntkicktgut.de/ or Facebook or Instagram. Do you like the project and would you like to donate something else? Then you have the opportunity to do so via this link: https://buntkicktgut.de/online-spenden
