The need to attract youth to sports is eagerly discussed in Ukraine, but that’s about it. Slogans like “Soccer Lessons in Every School!”, “Let’s Make Our Nation Healthy!”, “Let’s Get the Kids off the Street!” are proclaimed on a regular basis. Getting kids off the street sounds like a fine idea, but then what? You have to pay for training at sports schools. An hour on a tennis court in Kyiv costs an average of 25 dollars. Can all parents whose duty is to feed and clothe their offspring find the energy and, more importantly, the money, to enroll them in expensive sports courses?
There is reason to raise the subject once again, considering that Euro-2012 is not that far away. Will the government have the strength and determination to develop a children’s and youth sports infrastructure alongside the adult one?
Bureaucrats often talk about the need to establish social programs and nonprofit organizations specializing in children’s physical education, but every discussion ends up at the subject of lack of funds or enthusiasm. Those who really want to do something do it, and they find ways to receive help, including from the government.
Anatolii Turansky, chief physician of a health center in the Darnytsia district of Kyiv, told The Day: “We set up a soccer club called Dobro with the status of a children’s nonprofit organization. Today 300 children and 100 adults, residents of the microdistricts of old Darnytsia, train there free of charge. The training sessions take place at the stadium, of course, and the coaches are former players of the Dynamo Kyiv soccer team. We also plan to set up a relief foundation for orphans and children who are deprived of parental care. These children will be cared for by specialists, who will be working to restore their physical and psychological condition.”
This government-run health center is the exception. The coaches and instructors are on the state’s payroll, so parents don’t have to pay anything. Dr. Turansky said that his personal reputation and initiative were instrumental in establishing this foundation.
Fitness, aerobics, and Pilates are increasingly popular with young people, but not everyone can afford them. Viktoria Zykova, president of the Ukrainian Fitness Federation, says: “So far no one needs fitness here. I occupy my post on a voluntary basis, and for the past 15 years I have been trying to get through the bureaucratic wall of indifference and red tape. There’s no support from the government whatsoever. We have to take care of everything, from travel to competition arrangements. To raise a miserable sum — and I mean miserable — we have to collect a heap of papers that no one needs. Besides, fitness is not a sport; it’s not an Olympic event.”
To move the culture of physical fitness among the rising generation from the private domain, the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports recently adopted a program called “Forming a Healthy Lifestyle among Children and Youth.” Its main tasks are to implement a system of financial management and control, yet its implementation is being slowed down. The Kyiv City State Administration’s Chief Family and Youth Directorate told The Day that there is a program underway called “EnlistingYouth in a Healthy Lifestyle.” Under this program sports and social projects are regularly carried out for children and young people, including a street sports festival “Kyiv Youth against Drugs.”
Serhii Berezenko, head of the directorate, says some 20,000 hryvnias are allocated for such projects. That’s a paltry sum for a city with a million young people. Help also comes from civic organizations and sponsors. The Klychko brothers recently undertook to equip children’s playgrounds in the yards of apartment buildings. But is this really the responsibility of civic organizations and private sponsors?
