There are approximately 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese, with approximately 1.2 billion speakers worldwide. Yet there is one language that stands outside this statistic – despite it being the only one which is truly global: the universal language of sport.
This week, Global Geneva, a Swiss publication covering news from the non-profit and development world, released its global ranking of the "'Top 500 NGOs in the World"' for 2015. At number 32 on the list was Generations For Peace, a Jordan-based global non-profit organisation founded by HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein and Sarah Kabbani, and dedicated to sustainable peace- building and conflict transformation.
Generations For Peace uses the universal language of sport as an entry point to engage with children and youth, and its carefully-facilitated sport-based games provide a vehicle for integrated education and behaviour change. Over the last eight years, Generations For Peace has trained and mentored more than 8,500 volunteer leaders of youth in 50 countries and its programmes have touched the lives of more than 216,000 children, youth and adults.
As HRH Prince Feisal, Founder and Chairman of Generations For Peace, once said:
"The beauty in sports is that it's a universal language. You put a ball in front of any child anywhere in the world and they'll want to kick it. It is so inbred in us to want to be able to play and participate, that it makes it a great tool to use for peace-building."
12 months ago, Generations For Peace was ranked number 94 in The Global Journal's "'Top 100 NGOs in' the World"'. Its 62-place jump in the space of a year has made it the second-highest ranked peace-building organisation on the list and the only Jordanian NGO in the Top 100.
Since 2007, Generations For Peace has consistently demonstrated what can be achieved when the universal language of sport is used to instil dialogue, tolerance and peace amongst people in areas experiencing conflict and hostility around the world.
It is a shining example for other peace-building organisations and goes to show how quickly things change in a week.
Click here to find more information on Global Geneva's "'Top 500 NGOs"' ranking.
Photo: Generations For Peace