On Friday, 23 January 2026, voices from across South Asia came together online for “We Got Game Asia,” a webinar exploring how sports can be used as a powerful tool for social change. The session was part of the Learning Planning Festival organized by the Learning Planet Institute (LPI), celebrated every year on the International Day of Education in collaboration with UNESCO.

Set in a South Asian context, the webinar focused on how sports go far beyond physical activity, becoming a means to build communities, challenge inequalities, promote peace, and create opportunities for young people. The session brought together practitioners who have spent years using sports on the ground in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal.

Setting the Stage: Sports, Education, and Social Impact

The webinar opened with reflections on the Learning Planet Festival and its focus on innovation in education. Aart Bos, Strategic Business Developer at ISA, started the session by sharing how sports have shaped his own life , from building friendships to creating bridges across divided communities. Drawing from his experience in contexts like Burundi, he highlighted how sports can connect people where words and policies often fall short.

Saugat Jung Pandey, Project Officer at MasterPeace, moderated the session and framed the discussion. He invited participants to look at sports not only as games, but as spaces where values like teamwork, inclusion, leadership, and resilience are learned naturally.

Voices from South Asia: Sports in Action

From Nepal, Mr. Mohan Dangal, Executive Director of Child Nepal (CN), shared how football has been used as a tool for early childhood development and girls’ empowerment. Through collaborations with partners such as the FIFA Foundation and the European Union, Child Nepal has i

ntegrated football into learning spaces to help children build confidence, communication skills, and social awareness. Mohan emphasized how sports have helped shift parental attitudes especially towards girls, by showing thatplay can be educational, safe, and empowering.

From Bangladesh, Mr. Istiak Ahmed, Founder of SARCC and MasterPeace Bangladesh, reflected on the shrinking access to playgrounds and outdoor activities, especially in urban areas. He spoke about how the lack of safe spaces for play can contribute to isolation and negative influences among young people. At the same time, he highlighted encouraging developments, such as the rise of women’s football in Bangladesh, now recognized at the national level. Istiak also stressed the importance of preserving local and traditional games, which are deeply tied to culture, identity, and community bonding.

From India, Dr. Manoranjan Mishra, Director of Jeevan Rekha Parishad (JRP), shared deeply personal and community-level experiences. He spoke about how sports supported his own recovery after injury and COVID-19, and how JRP uses sports, including archery, w

restling, and indigenous games, to transform youth lifestyles in Odisha. His work focuses strongly on tribal communities, underprivileged youth, and girls, creating safe spaces where sports help break caste, gender, and religious barriers.

Sports as a Bridge for Inclusion and Peace

Several stories shared during the discussion illustrated how sports can bring divided communities together. Dr. Mishra described how sports activities helped integrate Dalit and general caste children around Chilka Lagoon, improving school attendance and community relations.In another case, football matches helped rebuild trust between Hindu and Christian communities in Kandhamal after ethnic violence.

Participants from other regions, including Samer

Alkasih from MasterPeace Jordan, also shared how sports support mental health, refugee integration, and youth engagement, reinforcing that while contexts differ, th

e impact of sports remains universal.

Challenges, Opportunities, and the Way Forward

The speakers did not shy away from challenges. Limited infrastructure, lack of trained teachers, inconsistent institutional support, and governance issues were openly discussed. Yet, there was strong agreement that impact does not always depend on big budgets, but on mindset, collaboration, and commitment.

The session concluded with reflections on the growing relevance of sports as non-formal education, especially in preparing young peoplefor life and work. Participants explored opportunities for cross-border collaboration, knowledge sharing, and capacity building, including the idea of an online workshop to exchange sports-based methodologies.

From Conversation to Action

As a concrete next step, speakers agreed to continue the dialogue beyond the webinar. Plans included exploring partnerships with schools, organizing follow-up meetings, and sharing practical tools and methodologies across the region. We Got Game Asia was more than a webinar. It was a reminder that sports can be a language of hope one that speaks across borders, cultures, and identities. By placing young people, inclusion, and community at the center, the session showed how something as simple as a game can become a powerful force for education, empowerment, and social change.

Change rarely starts with strategies. It starts with people and with the belief that they matter.

At MasterPeace, we witness the power of youth empowerment across our global network every day. When young people are trusted, supported, and given the space to explore their ideas, empowerment turns creativity into action, challenges into opportunities, and vision into possibility.

This story comes from Kosova, a place where young people face high unemployment and limited opportunities, yet carry extraordinary resilience, imagination, and drive.

In 2024, our local partner SIT, the MasterPeace Kosova club, introduced young people to the Doughnut Economics methodology. Not as a theory, but as a way to rethink the future. Through workshops and camps, participants explored how their creativity could become concrete start-up ideas — ventures designed to serve people, strengthen communities, and respect the planet.

These weren’t just business plans but they were more as acts of hope. The real impact shows itself in small moments. After one of the camps, a participant shared:

“These activities don’t just help me, they help my whole community.”

That sentence captures the heart of this work. Empower one young person, and the effect spreads outward, to families, peers, and neighborhoods. Skills grow into confidence, and ideas become shared responsibility.

While this story is rooted in Kosova, it is part of something larger. Being part of the MasterPeace network means no club works alone. Each local step forward connects to a global movement grounded in creativity, peace, and sustainability.

Looking ahead, our vision is simple and ambitious: a generation of young Kosovars who are confident enough to design their own future. A society where ideas are nurtured, collaboration is natural, and every voice has space.

Because when young people rise, they don’t rise alone. They lift their communities and, quietly, the world with them.

This story is part of the MasterPeace Impact Series. Each week, we share another to remind ourselves, our partners, and our funders why this work matters, and who it is really for.

At MasterPeace NL, creativity is not an extra. It is the starting point.

Across our projects in the Netherlands, we work with young people who are often overlooked or underestimated. Through photography, graffiti, art, music, and sports, we give them space to explore their talents, build confidence, and take action for others. What begins as creativity often becomes something deeper: a sense of belonging and belief.

Our approach is simple, and intentional.
Engage. Connect. Empower.

We engage young people through creative expression. Art allows them to speak without needing the right words. Confidence grows as they discover their strengths and develop leadership, curiosity, and a growth mindset.

We connect them with peers, communities, and policymakers, creating conversations around themes like freedom, identity, and wellbeing — not as abstract ideas, but as lived experiences.

We empower them to act. Young people present their ideas, create initiatives, and step into spaces where their voices are heard and taken seriously.

At MasterPeace NL, creativity is not an extra. It is the starting point.

Across our projects in the Netherlands, we work with young people who are often overlooked or underestimated. Through photography, graffiti, art, music, and sports, we give them space to explore their talents, build confidence, and take action for others. What begins as creativity often becomes something deeper: a sense of belonging and belief.

Our approach is simple, and intentional.
Engage. Connect. Empower.

We engage young people through creative expression. Art allows them to speak without needing the right words. Confidence grows as they discover their strengths and develop leadership, curiosity, and a growth mindset.

We connect them with peers, communities, and policymakers, creating conversations around themes like freedom, identity, and wellbeing — not as abstract ideas, but as lived experiences.

We empower them to act. Young people present their ideas, create initiatives, and step into spaces where their voices are heard and taken seriously.

At St. Bonifatius College, these three steps came together powerfully. A group of students who barely knew each other — many struggling with low self-esteem — created an exhibition of self-portraits. Each image told a story of identity, happiness, and their vision of a better world. What started as a creative exercise became visible confidence.

Another moment stays with us.

In The Hague, we worked with ISK students — newly arrived young people, some of them refugees — on a project about health. As part of the process, they connected with elderly residents from a local care home. In the final step, the students created something for them: portraits presented in handmade frames.

The room was quiet. Emotional. Human.

Young people carrying experiences of displacement met seniors with a lifetime of memories. Through creativity, they saw each other — not as labels or generations, but as people. For us as project managers, it was a reminder that connection can happen when space is created for it.

Our work in the Netherlands is local, but it is part of something bigger. Together with MasterPeace Global, we believe everyone has a talent — and that talent can contribute to a more peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable society. This is why we focus on young people with fewer opportunities. Not because they need fixing, but because the world needs their creativity.

Looking ahead, our ambition is clear: more projects led by young people, for young people. In close collaboration with youth workers, we want to design initiatives that respond to real needs and create real agency.

Because when a young person realizes “I matter, and I can contribute,”
change has already begun.

This is part of the MasterPeace Impact Series —
where we share the stories behind the impact, and why this work matters.

For two days in Utrecht at the end of the summer days, something rare happened.

At the Van der Valk Hotel Utrecht, 63 people from more than 30 organizations and over 20 countries gathered not to rush through agendas, but to think, listen, and reconnect. The occasion was PWR Up 2025, convened by MasterPeace—and its quiet ambition was simple: strengthen the people behind the work.

The structure was simple. One day for practice. One day for people.

On the first day, participants worked hands-on with tools they can immediately use: sustainability made practical through eco-labelling, social entrepreneurship as a path to resilience, learning design that actually leads to change, and honest conversations about ethical and inclusive AI. This wasn't a theory but it was capacity building shaped by real-world pressure.

On the International Day of Peace, participants shared messages in their own languages and walked together in a quiet procession. No branding. No speeches. Just a shared reminder of why this work exists.

Day two went deeper. Trust replaced hierarchy. Youth perspectives on climate anxiety met Doughnut Economics. Artivism opened conversations that policy language cannot. Fundraising was addressed plainly —  as a skill that can be learned, planned, and sustained.

The summit closed with something rare: networking without performance. Participants gathered around ideas they genuinely care about — youth inclusion, wellbeing, innovation, AI, storytelling — and small circles formed naturally. Several collaborations began there, without a single pitch deck.

PWR Up 2025 did not promise solutions to the world’s problems. It offered something quieter, and perhaps more necessary: a reminder that lasting change depends on people who are supported, connected, and allowed to be human.

This is the first story in the MasterPeace Impact Series. Each week, we’ll share another — showing how investing in people builds stronger organizations, smarter programs, and change that lasts.