The Academic Beach Handball Club Zagreb was entrusted with the implementation of a new project for the promotion and development of beach handball following a call for tenders by the Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes.
As part of the project, which will run until the end of 2024, the members and staff of ABHC Zagreb will have the opportunity to collaborate with foreign colleagues from Hungary, Italy and Poland on many topics closely related to the development of sport in Croatia and Europe.
The project includes four activities to exchange experiences with colleagues from the mentioned countries, focusing on the following topics: 1. the development of new concepts to attract and motivate young people to beach handball, 2. the development of relations between clubs and the national federation and their mutual role in the development of the sport, 3. the specifics of organising humanitarian tournaments and 4. the strengthening of the federation’s capacities and networking with federations that are not exclusively focused on this sport, as well as the mutual potential that the federations gain in this way.
As already mentioned, the project comprises four trips abroad, the first of which took place last weekend in Budapest. Specifically, from 7 to 11 December 2023, a delegation from AKRP Zagreb led by the association’s Executive Director, Sandra Čičić, and the secretary of AKRP Zagreb, Mladen Paradžik, visited the Lupa Beach Sports Club. During the three-day programme, they had the opportunity to discuss topics related to the development and potential of the neighbouring country in attracting young handball players and how to increase their interest in beach handball. In addition, many other topics were covered as part of the plan and programme of the above-aforementioned mobility.
During a pleasant meeting with colleague Nemeth, many ideas came to light and it can be said that the first step of the mobility action has paved the way for further co-operation between the two clubs. Lupa Beach Sport, under the leadership of Zoltan Nemeth, is the organiser of one of the best beach handball tournaments in Europe, and the Republic of Hungary is a unique example of the systematic development of the sport from the state level to the local clubs. Therefore, the references adopted within the framework of this mobility action are of great importance for strengthening the human potential in our organisation. Therefore, I believe that it is extremely useful to work on such projects and promote beach handball in the future. As this was our first mobility project, we were a little nervous about how to do all the administrative tasks properly. However, thanks to the guidance and excellent support from the people in charge of the Agency for Mobility and EU Projects, we were able to finalise the first activity without any problems. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them once again for recognising our project and the support we received. Now we will write the report and summarise the ideas after this very effective “Hungarian” weekend. - said Sandra Čičić.
More mobility activities are planned for next year, where club members with different profiles will have the opportunity to learn something new from their European colleagues and thus strengthen the capacity of ABHC Zagreb.
