Say Goodbye to 2022 on a High Note

21. December 2022

2022 has been a stimulating year for us at the ITTF Foundation. This year has seen many challenges to progress on equality, justice, peace, and conflict resolutions in some countries and territories. However, together with the table tennis family, we have shown our solidarity and resilience to bring the peace-making power of table tennis through the 2022 World Table Tennis Day celebration, themed ‘Peace on the table’.

Closing 2022 does not mean turning the page and moving to other causes and initiatives. ITTF Foundation will continue its mission using table tennis to deliver positive social change worldwide and extend the spirit of peace-making, sustainability, and gender equality to all our programmes and projects.

Here are some of our 2022 highlights:

Dream Building Fund

All remaining Dream Building Fund 2021 projects that were delayed due pandemic started this year, and we wrapped up some 2019 projects. Our field projects in Indonesia, India, Kenya, Iran, Nepal, and Uganda have shown their commitment and dedication to promoting the social change they want in their communities.

We rolled out our new Monitoring and Evaluation framework to ensure that all gender identities, age groups, abilities and disabilities are adequately mainstreamed and represented in our projects. We also assist our local partners to improve their impact and reach effectiveness.

The new partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German International Development Cooperation Agency/GIZ) has resulted in the delivery of the TT4D capacity-building workshops in the Western Balkan region, Iran and Uganda. We will continue strengthening our local partners' skills to mainstream TT4D approaches in all initiatives aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

TT4ALL

World Table Tennis Day 2022 was celebrated with 314 physical events in 107 countries and territories, with #PeaceOnTheTable as the central message. 22,965 table tennis fans tuned in to our 24-hour live stream from across the world.

Thanks to 25 promoters across five continents for their creativity spotlighting the power of sport, particularly table tennis, in building bridges, creating friendships, resolving conflicts and promoting peace among people or different social groups.

The INTERACT project closed in December with the launch of the INTERACT toolkit. Aiming to put the capacity-building framework into action along with peer-to-peer support to mainstream Sport for All, we will continue contributing to the INTERACT + project 2023-2025.

TT@Work

At the inaugural ITTF Summit held in Amman, Jordan, we launched the Table Tennis Corporate Cup on 5 December 2022. Seven Jordanian companies joined the Corporate Cup and played in pairs with some of the World’s Top Table Tennis Players. Successful Corporate Cup set to replicate in other countries and territories to promote well-being in the workplace while contributing to a noble cause.

Ping Pong Diplomacy

The ITTF Group commemorated the 2022 World Table Tennis Day with Peace on the Table, marking the second year of the biennial celebration of 50 years of Ping Pong Diplomacy. We believe that sharing our knowledge and expertise about using table tennis for conflict resolution is crucial. The Ping Pong Diplomacy toolkit was one of our key publications on 6th April 2022, aiming to bring conflict resolution tools to the grassroots level.

Some other exciting things we have done

The ITTF Parkinson’s World Table Tennis Championships won the Best Sports Governing Body Initiative at Sports Business Awards 2022 and was shortlisted in the Sports Diversity & Inclusion Award.

In addition, the 2021 ITTF Parkinson's World Table Tennis Championships celebration video was awarded Mention d'Honneur for the Paralympics category; our video, Edudrive: Table Tennis Helps Keeping Students at School, has attained Mention d'Honneur for Sport & Society – Sport Values Education and Culture in the Sport Movies & TV 2022 – 40th Milano International FICTS Fest.

What’s next

The 2023 World Parkinson’s Championships, along with World Alzheimer’s Championships, will be held in Crete, Greece, in November 2023. These championships mark the first-ever World Table Tennis for Health Festival organised by the ITTF Foundation.

The partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) inspired our Programmes Team to continue this knowledge-sharing activity with all DBF projects across continents in integrating TT4D approaches in their initiatives. The second TT4D training will take place in January 2023 and include more practical activities.

World Table Tennis Day will be celebrated on 23 April starting next year. The central message of the 2023 WTTD will be Sustainability, with the slogan ‘Think Sustainably, Act Now! Let’s amplify this message and join the 2023 WTTD celebrations!

Our most heartfelt gratitude to our Governing Board and Board of Trustees for having faith in our work. A big thank you to ITTF Group and all 227 ITTF Member Associations for supporting our programmes and projects. To our trusted partners and sponsors, especially the Foundation for Global Sports Development and GIZ; thanks to our ambassadors, we are fortunate to have you on our team. We look forward to another fantastic year working together to promote solidarity through table tennis.

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