Right to play
Right To Play is an international development aid organization . Its aim is to support children affected by war, poverty and disease worldwide with the help of games and sports programs and to improve their quality of life. The organization is based in Toronto , Canada . There are also branches in China , Germany , Great Britain , the Netherlands , Norway , Switzerland and the United States .
The initially purely Norwegian organization was founded in 1992 by the organizing committee of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer , at that time still under the name Olympic Aid . The speed skater and four-time Olympic champion Johann Olav Koss called on other athletes for donations and played a decisive role in the internationalization of the organization; meanwhile he is their president. In 2007 the fund raised 27.6 million Canadian dollars .
Right To Play is active in four areas: basic education and development of children, health promotion and disease prevention, conflict management and peace building, community building. These goals are promoted in particular through sport and play. Mainly HIV-infected and AIDS- infected children, the disabled, street children, former child soldiers and refugees are supported. More than 300 top athletes from around 40 countries, including numerous Olympic and world champions, serve as figureheads and role models.