The Seychelles Islands are a group of 115 natural islands in the Indian Ocean with a population of less than 100,000. Currently, the youth (age group 0-25) make up about 20% of the total population. Sporting activities including Football, Volleyball, Handball, Netball, Cricket, Wind Surfing, Swimming, Sailing, Tennis, Basketball just to name a few. With changes in climatic condition; the threat of sea level rise; increase flooding etc? there is a real need to ensure that the effects of climate change are understood by the youth and concrete actions are taken to mitigate those effects.

At first sight however, there doesn?t seem to be a link between sports and climate change, but on closer inspection every sports activity can have an impact and be impacted by climate change not just relating to the natural environment but the players themselves. Sports brings people together both nationally and internationally. With the recently concluded FIFA 2018- we have seen how football has that effect. Keeping in mind the impact that one sport can have , we believe that much more can be achieved through creative and innovative ideas to bring youth focus on Climate Action, using football as the means to achieve that end. At Futuro Sports Sesel, our philosophy is that if one can care so much about sports we can use the same focus to bring attention to the impacts of climate change on our physical and natural environment and encourage young children to take action.

Raising awareness about climate change among children is one part of our programme. The other is to educate them on the benefits of keeping the environment clean, the impacts of plastics and waste on the field and given them a sense of ownership to ensure that their field is maintained and suitable for playing football or other activities that not only improves their physical and mental well-being but also improves their natural environment. Our ultimate goal is to bring about a conscious shift in behavior in the way we care for our planet.

Internationally, there has been a significant progress made to relate sports and climate change and mitigate the effects of climate change. For example, during the 2014 Olympics, low carbon technologies were used to mitigate and offset the huge carbon footprint that the games presented. At Futuro Sports Sesel, we believe that Sports can lead the way in bringing awareness and action for positive impacts for the people and the planet.

Through this project, Futuro aims to promote social inclusion and provide a platform for young citizens to combat climate change by taking an innovative approach through Football, under the focal area of Youth and Climate Change. The project endeavors to engage young children from varied backgrounds to understand the impacts of climate change not only by their love and enthusiasm of football, but also encourage actions that they could take to mitigate climate change impacts...