SOCIAL ASPECTS
What makes the Interamnia World Cup a unique event is its strong social connotation, thus
making it a “small Olympics of handball”, as it was renamed a few years back. Sport events are
without any doubt pivotal in the world to create connections in favour of peace and brotherhood
among peoples.
Recently, on the 40th anniversary of the tournament, the Organization invited the peoples of the
world to sign the “Teramo Charter”, in which they committed themselves into performing acts
to spread peace around the world, taking into consideration the needs and the requests of all the
children who took part in the contest titled “Tomorrow’s leader”.
One of the most important merits of the tournament is that it has always welcomed everyone
without prejudice towards race, sex, religion, and political belief. The Interamnia World Cup
continues its effort to bring down any political barriers, offering the opportunity to countries
in conflict to take part in the tournament. Indeed, even during periods of great tension, teams
from Lebanon and Israel, Iran and Iraq, England and Argentina, Bosnia and Serbia, China and
Taiwan competed against one another in Teramo, therefore launching an important message of
peace and union among peoples in the name of sport. These high and solid values always live
on, especially thanks to events that carry a great symbolic meaning, such as the “Squadra della
Pace” (United World Team for Peace), formed in 2004, which made the meeting of athletes from
countries in conflict among themselves possible and the UNICEF award, which named Teramo in
1989 “a city open to the world”
This path, characterized by the slogan “Towards a new world”, had begun in 2009 after the
earthquake in L’Aquila, capital city of Abruzzo. On that occasion, a message was launched by
the youth of the Interamnia World Cup to the governors who gathered in L’Aquila during the G8
meeting that year.
The contest called “Tomorrow’s Leader” was proclaimed again on the occasion of the 43rd edition
of the Interamnia Cup and in cooperation with the LEM-Italy Association and the University of
Teramo. During the event, the work created by the children within the First World Congress on
Language Rights (Teramo, 19th/23rd May 2015) and on “Lessons of Freedom