The latest Just Play Emergency Programme – developed by the Oceania Football Confederation in partnership with UNICEF and with the support of the UEFA Foundation for Children has been launched on Ambae Island.
This was after receiving the go-ahead by the Vanuatu government-led emergency committee, for a period of five weeks.
Speaking during the training session ahead of the launch of the programme, Vanuatu Football Federation President Lambert Maltock highlighted the power of football in a community.
He said football is about taking messages beyond the pitch to children and families.
On 28 September 2017, the Vanuatu Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency and ordered the mandatory evacuation of all 11,600 residents of Ambae Island amid the continuous eruption of the Monaro Volcano.
The evacuees were relocated across the neighbouring islands of Espiritu Santo, Maewo and Pentecost. Repatriations started on 21 October, and today around 71 per cent of the Ambae residents are back on home soil.
Following the Ambae evacuation and repatriation, concerns relating to the education, health and nutrition, protection and psychosocial support of children remain at the forefront of the emergency response efforts.
The Just Play programme uses football to support the psychosocial recovery of children after natural disasters. Just Play sessions are used to encourage children to draw pictures and to share their experiences and the effects on them and their families, which helps them to start their recovery process.
The programme also includes key messages from the government of Vanuatu that are relevant to the context of repatriation. The direct beneficiaries of the programme are children and adolescents aged between 6 and 16.
The objectives of the Just Play Emergency Programme are to teach children how to keep themselves and their families’ safe during an emergency and to support their recovery after a natural disaster.