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Kick off! special edition

July 21, 2015

There are more than 7,000 languages around the world. But one language is universal: sport. DW's Kick off! program follows people in three projects supported by Germany's Foreign Ministry. We journey to Manila, Addis Ababa and Leipzig - three people, three continents, three lives.

https://p.dw.com/p/1F29O

Thomas Roy helps to improve the infrastructure of the Philippine Football Federation and works with the youth teams. In Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, we meet Binyam Belay, an outstanding young talent - or like project leader Joachim Fickert says "The Bomb." And, at the International Coaching Course in Leipzig we meet Lamia Boumehdi, a former player on Morocco's womens football team and Nermine Ahmed, a coach and sports teacher from Egypt. They are two of the first Arab women to take part in the coaching course. Three very different stories but they all have one thing in common: sport.

Germany has sponsored sports projects around the world for the last 50 years. The German Foreign Ministry, in partnership with the German Olympic Sports Confederation and other sports associations, sponsors more than 1,400 projects in more than 100 countries. The aim is to help countries to help themselves. Coaching courses and developing infrastructure are the main focus. Sport is not just about competition and passion. It’s also about team building, coming together, sharing experiences and bringing together different cultures.