The International Olympic Committee announced an emergency $2 million fund that will be made available to National Olympic Committees to assist refugees.
“We have all been touched by the terrible news and the heartbreaking stories in the past few days,” IOC president Thomas Bach said in a press release. “With this terrible crisis unfolding across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, sport and the Olympic Movement wanted to play its part in bringing humanitarian help to the refugees. We made a quick decision that we needed to take action and to make this fund available immediately.”
The fund is $1 million from the IOC and $1 million from Olympic Solidarity. National Olympic Committees and other parties will be asked to submit projects for funding.
“We know through experience that sport can ease the plight of refugees, many of them young people and children, be they in the Middle East, Africa, Europe or in other parts of the world,” Bach said in the press release. “Our thoughts are with the many refugees risking their lives and the lives of their families to escape danger.”
