Levelling the Global Playing Field: Volleyball For Social Inclusion

A Global Day with a Global Message

Every year on April 6, the world pauses to honour the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) - A day that celebrates the power of sport to create a better, more inclusive world.

This year, IDSDP 2025 is a call to action: Under the theme "Leveling the Playing Field: Sport for Social Inclusion," we are invited to reflect on how sport can go beyond the scoreboard. Challenging stereotypes, creating equal opportunities, and inspiring dialogue that breaks down barriers.

Volleyball Is a Global Language

Volleyball is played in every corner of the globe. From Olympic arenas to village sand courts, the game is simple: A ball, a net, and people coming together.

What makes volleyball special is the way it fosters genuine connection, communication, and trust. Everyone touches the ball. Everyone relies on each other. Everyone is part of the action. It’s a sport that mirrors what inclusion should look like: equal participation, mutual respect, and shared success.

That’s why we use volleyball as our tool for social change.

Social Inclusion Starts with Access

True inclusion doesn’t begin with trophies, it begins with access. Imagine being a child in a refugee camp, a remote village, or an underserved urban neighbourhood.

You’ve never worn proper sports shoes. You've never trained with a real coach. But then someone brings a ball. Someone invites you to play.

That’s what we do at LKTBF. Through our programs, we turn moments like these into movements:

• Gear Up Rise Up (GURU) empowers local coaches with grassroots knowledge, ensuring sustainability long after we leave.

• Volley Beyond Borders builds volleyball communities around refugee camps, fostering belonging in the face of displacement.

• Adopt a Team connects passionate supporters with grassroots teams in need, providing gear, mentorship, and visibility.

  
  

These projects are proof that sport, when accessible and intentional, can change everything.

Keep on inspiring and leaving a big footprint where you step

In February 2025, we organised a volleyball coaching course in Alexandra, Johannesburg, the township’s first. Over six days, 20 local coaches and teachers were trained to lead safe, structured sessions for youth in their communities.

One participant, with a voice full of gratitude, told us: "I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed every exercise. I wish you could stay longer. But I’m grateful. Keep on inspiring and leaving a big footprint where you step.”

This is what levelling the playing field looks like. Not just giving people a ball, but passing on the knowledge, the confidence, and the belief that they can carry the game forward themselves.

The Role of Dialogue: From the Court to the United Nations

IDSDP 2025 is also a platform for global dialogue. This year’s official commemoration at the UN Headquarters in New York will bring together policymakers, advocates, and sport organisations to discuss how sport can drive inclusion at every level, from community fields to national policy.

It’s a conversation that Let’s Keep The Ball Flying is proud to be part of. And it’s one we’re having every day, in every country, with every fingerprint, and with every child who steps onto a court they never thought they’d play on.

Why This Matters Now

The world is increasingly divided. Inequality is growing. Access to education, safety, and health is still denied to too many. But in a world full of barriers, sport remains one of the few things that transcends all of them.

Volleyball, in its natural state, gives us the chance to rewrite stories, restore dignity, and remind people, especially young people, that they matter. And when we level the playing field in sport, we begin to level it everywhere else too.