In our third episode, we speak to Dr Simon Rofe, a university lecturer who pioneered the field of sport diplomacy and teaches its only existing course at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the United Kingdom.

Simon talks about the role that athletes and sports fans play in representing their countries and how sporting events can be used as a platform for communities and leaders to come together at the same time and space when regular political channels may be fractured.

We hear about cricket diplomacy between India and Pakistan; projects addressing communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa and how sports played into Qatar’s National Vision 2030 Vision.

The second episode of our podcast features Khalida Popal, one of the founding members and former captain of Afghanistan’s Women’s Football Team.

Khalida takes us on a captivating, sometimes perilous personal journey and shares her story of perseverance, resilience and success against all odds.

We accompany her through the years of chasing her dream - to play sport despite facing discrimination and adversity.

In the process, she has managed to empower and unify new generations of women and girls from diverse backgrounds through her organization Girl Power.

In our first episode, we are joined by Alan Fraser, PCVE practitioner and Director of community partnerships at Cranford Community College in London, United Kingdom who discusses sports as a preventive mechanism for violent extremism.

Alan has developed a variety of programmes and activities designed to reduce the risk of radicalization among young people through sports over the past 10 years and shares his insights on addressing vulnerability and antisocial behavior in young people.

Highlighting that sports interventions are not only for athletes, he also walks us through an example of sports leadership programming that trains young people in sports management, so that they can run sports events and re-kindle their love for the pitch.