Summer Olympics

Sports-for-peace group: Programs have reached 350K people

Published Mar. 28, 2017 5:29 p.m. ET

UNITED NATIONS (AP) A group that promotes using sports to build peace says more than 350,000 people worldwide have been involved in its projects in the four years since the United Nations agreed to celebrate the idea every April.

The group Peace and Sport outlined its work at a news conference Tuesday. Founder Joel Bouzou says it has helped establish over 1,000 projects in 170 countries, ranging from Colombia to Rwanda to East Timor.

Peace and Sport provides financial and other support for meets, instructional programs and other initiatives.

Bouzou says sports allow people from different backgrounds to get to know each other. He's a French four-time Olympic pentathlete and 1984 bronze medalist.

The U.N. General Assembly has designated April 6 as International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

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