My

Story

Kateryna

“My name is Kateryna, I am 27 years old and I am from Lviv. I’ve always had a passion for football, and now I work as a Coach at FC New Lviv, providing opportunities for children aged 3 to 13 to train and attend football camps and festivals. Since the beginning of the war, I started working with many more children from many different cities in Ukraine coming to Lviv. We help them adapt through the trainings and develop physically. Because of the war, I learned how important it is the value of life. We are in contact with people with many trauma and we must be more unite and help each other through our specialities.  They like football, they like sports, and as their coach, we have to create comfortable conditions for them.

During the Young Coach Education Programme, I learned the values that can be conveyed to children through football and the importance of communication. I also learned how to ensure inclusive and accessible football activities for children with different abilities. In fact, working with children with disabilities was a first for me. Now I have the experience and see how it is possible to implement my activities and create comfortable situations for everybody to attend my training sessions.

After the end of the programme, I want to start training new groups, including children with disabilities. I will start with grassroot initiatives, guaranteeing that football is accessible to everyone, but maybe in the future we should think on how to develop a professional football team as the Amputee Football Team of the Legia Warszawa we had the chance to meet during the Programme. In fact, I do believe that football is for everyone, regardless of whether a person with is or without disabilities.”