NSC, NCC combine for youths' welfare |11 August 2023
The training in progress (Photo: Contributed)
The National Sports Council and the National Council for Children have joined forces to better protect and safeguard young adolescents involved in sporting activities.
The two entities kicked off the collaboration last week with a training session in the realm of safeguarding children and child protection, targeting coaches and other officials who are on the frontline.
The training was led by personnel from the National Council for Children (NCC), in the presence of the organisation’s chief executive Yasmin Urmaji, at the auditorium of the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) head office.
It was bent on the need and importance for all organisations that work with, or come into contact with children in their day-to-day running, to have safeguarding policies and procedures in place, to ensure every child, regardless of age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, has a right to equal protection from harm.
Setting up such policies and following good safeguarding guidelines and procedures means children are safe from adults and other children who might pose a risk, speakers said at the training.
While the issue of abuse and mistreatment of young adolescents involved in sports here remains somewhat taboo, there have been instances when stories of such have come to the fore.
The most widespread story to date that comes to mind involved former international French swimming coach Guillaume Bachmann in 2019, who was suspended and brought to court over an incident involving a young teenage swimmer.
Bachman was taken to task after a video went viral in which he was seen pulling the edges of a young adolescent swimsuit indecently while she was on the starting block and about to dive.
He faced all sorts of scrutiny from different sources including the swimming community afterwards before he was eventually suspended pending trial.
Other cases of other nature emerged in other instances before, involving at times figures in authority, but most lacked the same public scrutiny as Bachman’s situation, due to what is a proven reluctance to at times address the issue of safeguarding head on.
Commenting on the issue nonetheless, National Sports Council (NSC) chief executive, Marc Arissol, said the training was meant to serve as an eye-opener for delegates, so they themselves can be on the lookout for signals of improper behaviour.
He explained that those in direct contact with young athletes sometimes may not be aware of the disruptive nature of their own misconstrued behaviour, making it even more important for them to learn what is appropriate and what is not.
“We are at a point where we need to become more proactive rather than just reactive to this issue, so we can in turn mitigate and eventually eradicate behaviour causing irreparable damage to our young sports girls and boys,” CEO Arissol laid down.
He noted that the introduction of the psychosocial committee for the Indian Ocean Islands Games and the official appointment of chaplains in sports, is a step in the direction to root out safeguarding and child protection issues, so young girls and boys can feel more safe enjoying sports.
By Gilly Jean on behalf of the NSC