Even though the Parimatch Foundation had to aim most of its resources at helping Ukraine due to the russian invasion, some critically important projects are still underway. The Foundation continues to support society by engaging children in sports. The main aim is to promote the health and well-being of the community through children's education and participation in sports while providing equal opportunities for all.
Since December 2021, one of the Foundation’s important projects — the Sports Mentor program, has been included in the program of afternoon employment of teenagers Free Hands in the Limassol Municipality.
The Free Hands program is an afternoon employment program for adolescents. It aims to provide social support to low-paid families, offending their children, and a safe daycare during the afternoon hours. Also, the program offers healthy employment and proper guidance for school study if they can’t receive assistance from private tutoring centers. The program provides various activities to children, and the Sports Mentor program is a new addition that gives something different to this program.
The Parimatch Foundation offers fitness classes combined with self-defense and mixed martial arts classes twice a week to all the children in the program through the Sports Mentor program.
The Cyprus Federation of Mixed Martial Arts and the private school MMA school The Cage provided courses in collaboration. The official opening ceremony of the program in Cyprus was in February 2022. Children had the opportunity to attend a mixed martial arts program by professional athletes, try various techniques, present to the guests a training program, and receive gifts from the foundation.
The Free Hands mentors also received sports equipment. Since then, 17 kids have joined the program, training twice a week, every Monday and Tuesday.
The Head of the Free Hands program, Mrs. Efi Charalambous, welcomed Parimatch Foundation’s initiative: It gives our children the opportunity to participate and acquire specialized skills in self-defense.
Our Municipality may be the only municipality in Cyprus with a sports office in its ranks. The Limassol Municipality has succeeded as a European city of Sports. We have achieved this with a lot of hard work and with the support of the Limassol Municipality. As chairman of the committee, I can promise that we will contribute in the best way to the sports part. I want to welcome the initiative for self-defense courses and say that ut’s an excellent experience for the kids. I wish the children’s careers every success.
– The Youth and Sports Committee president of the Limassol Municipality, Mr. Loizos Mavroudis, who visited the ceremony.
I would like to thank both the Free Hands program and the Parimatch Foundation for their trust. The whole idea was to come here and work on a physical education program. This program combines sports, contact with marks, and the first contact with martial arts. The program also evolved from the children’s interest in learning more.
– The head of the MMA school, The Cage, and the children’s coach Stefanos Charalambous.
We are proud of this Free Hands program of the Municipality of Limassol and the MMA School The Cage collaboration. I am grateful for their excellent cooperation in all the steps towards implementing the program.
The purpose of the Parimatch Foundation is to promote the health and well-being of the community by promoting the education and participation of children in sports, offering equal opportunities for all. Through this program, the children have the chance to exercise regularly, and we are sure that the excellent work done by our trainers will offer them a lot to children both in the short and long term.
– Mr. Constantinos Kkaili, head of Parimatch Tech’s Corporate Social Responsibility.
Cyprus continues to meet people fleeing from Ukraine due to the war. The Parimatch Foundation makes its programs in Cyprus available for Ukrainians. Children from Ukraine will be able to join the sports groups. So Ukrainian children are expected to visit training in Limassol as a part of The ‘Sports Mentor’ program.
The Parimatch Foundation is a charitable foundation. Through its programs and its general action, its purpose is to cover a part of the strategy and corporate social responsibility of Parimatch Tech within the framework of its general philosophy for sustainable development.
The Foundation funds and supports charities and programs that cater to children’s health and well-being in Parimatch Tech’s communities. The Parimatch Foundation’s mission is to promote the health and well-being of the community through children’s education and participation in sports while providing equal opportunities for all.
