Portugal
participants
This tournament was organized with two main goals in mind: first, it would be an activity to foster new friendships between the participants; second, it aimed to promote sports and physical activity as an important part of their exchange program.
Well-being is an important part of being a mobility student. There are a lot of changes happening, from moving to a new country to making new friends. Sometimes, finding time to play sports and to work on our well-being is not easy among all of the other things on our to do list. Therefore, we organised a friendly tournament for students to foster these healthy habits during their mobility programme.
Before the event, participants registered themselves in teams or, if they preferred, individually. On the day of the tournament, ESN Coimbra's volunteers formed teams with the participants who had registered themselves individually and sketched the tournament, which was divided in volleyball and football games. The games were quite informal, as the ESN volunteers only timed the games and helped ensure that the basic rules were being followed, so as not to let anyone injure themselves. After the games ended, the teams gathered to have a healthy snack together.
This activity was very well-received by the participants, who enjoyed the relaxed environment and the opportunity to play sports among new friends. Furthermore, the activity led to the creation of an informal chat group where International Students arranged to meet for football and volleyball games throughout the next few weeks (these meetings were put on hold after the state of emergency in Portugal was declared).