PeacePlayers International

PeacePlayers International
1200 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Suite 875 Washington, D.C. 20036
Contact: Adam Hirsch ahirsch@peaceplayersintl.org 202-408-5111

PeacePlayers International uses the game of basketball to unite, educate and inspire young people in divided communities, based on the premise that children who play together can learn how to live together. (PPI’s affiliate in Israel and the West Bank, PeacePlayers International- Middle East, promotes peaceful coexistence among Arab and Jewish young people in the region and provides positive extracurricular outlets for those from disadvantaged communities.)

Children who play together can learn to live together. That’s the idea behind PeacePlayers International, a nonprofit organization that uses basketball to unite children in divided communities all around the world. Since 2001 PeacePlayers has served 65,000 kids and trained more than 1,100 coaches from some of the world’s toughest conflict areas. PeacePlayers has been featured in Sports Illustrated, ESPN, CBS, the Today Show, and the Washington Post.

For your Mitzvah Project, you can support PeacePlayers efforts in Israel, where Israeli and Arab children play basketball together on the same team where they learn to work together and become friends. PeacePlayers can give you the tools to plan, organize and host your own 3-on-3 basketball tournament with proceeds going to PeacePlayers’ own work using the game to bridge divides between Arab and Jewish children in Israel.

In the words of Hadas, a Jewish 17-year-old from Jerusalem and member of PeacePlayers since 2009, “We are PeacePlayers, and we are against the hate and racism. We won’t let our society dictate to us who to hate and who to like. We are PeacePlayers, and we refuse to be enemies, no matter what. We are PeacePlayers, and we are here to prove that there’s a better way for all of us!”

If you believe in the power of teamwork and know that playing team sports unites and helps kids learn about a lot more than sports, then PeacePlayers is for you!