More great news for Football Beyond Borders: London 2011 as the CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics) comes on board the project, along with Para Siempre FC.
CARA was established in 1933 in response to the persecution of academics across Europe by fascist regimes. It was founded as the ‘Academic Assistance Council’ by leading figures such as Sir William Beveridge; Lord Rutherford; John Maynard Keynes; A V Hill, Lionel Robbins; and Margery Fry.
78 years on, CARA awards grants to enable refugee academics to achieve employment in the UK at a level commensurate with their skills and experience in the long term. Academics are frequent targets of state-sponsored violence and repression. In times of conflict, academics and intellectuals often suffer intimidation, torture, and imprisonment. Grants can support refugee academics to re-qualify in a range of professions in the UK such as teaching, academia, engineering, law, the charity sector and medicine.
CARA has established a UK University Network of 66 Universities, in order to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between UK higher education institutions in support of refugee and threatened academics and in defence and promotion of academic and university freedoms worldwide. SOAS has been a significant member of this initiative by means of a fellowship scheme and internship program.
CARA's mission is most definitely one in which everyone involved with Football Beyond Borders believes, and we are all thrilled to be working with such a prestigous organisation.
Para Siempre F.C., sponsored by CARA, comprises of academics, lecturers, postgraduates and undergraduates from an array of social and cultural backgrounds. Their aim is simple yet powerful; campaigning for the right of children to have an education. Para Siempre F.C. are using football as a universal language to promote sustainable education for those in the most impoverished regions of the world, to facilitate support for existing educational charities and maintain development through schemes of self-sufficiency.
Para Siempre F.C. is not just a football club. It is striving to create a different model of the traditional sports club. A football club with its’ foundations built on values of altruism and generosity, real sustainable change and essentially, improving the lives of the impoverished.
The values of Para Siempre tie in perfectly with those of Football Beyond Borders, and we are all thrilled to be working with such a great project.
CARA and Para Siempre FC will host one of the evening's discussions, based around how academics specifically serve as a catalyst to cross borders, and how football within universities does the same, but again full details of our partnership have yet to be finalised, so watch this space!
Make sure to check out
http://academic-refugees.org for more information on CARA and
http://www.parasiemprefc.co.uk/ for more information on Para Siempre.
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