Play2 Educate

Play2EDUCATE (P2E) is a nonprofit organization (or a non-governmental organization (NGO)) that cultivates positive relationship development among youth to promote tolerance and foster resilience focused on preventing religious, political, and ethnic extremism, conflict, and violence. P2E uses a combination of sports / games, dialogue, and positive community mentors to positively impact the lives of the disenfranchised youth of Kosovo  through life skills and prosocial behavior promotion in order to circumvent engagement with various forms of extremism, conflict, and violence.  P2E was incorporated in the state of Colorado (USA) and awarded 501(c)3 status from the US Government (IRS) in June 2017. P2E’s Kosovo NGO registration status was granted in August 2017.

History: P2E originated in 2015 when our Founder, Gena Sturgon, took the idea of using sport for development to the Rotary Club Prishtina International project “A Violence Free Future” (VFF). P2E originally functioned as a 2 hour session within VFF’s conferences, with implementation support from NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) soldiers and local Rotaract members. VFF aimed to promote tolerance and inclusion, as a means of countering the religious radicalization and extremism gripping Kosovo’s population, namely the youth.  Grounded in P2E’s success at these VFF events, Gena saw an opportunity to further develop P2E into a long-term, sustainable program. In collaboration with Soldier volunteers, Gena began developing the skeleton of what would later become the P2E organization. After a year of unrelated work in Ukraine, Gena decided to return to Kosovo, where she founded Play2EDUCATE in March 2017 based on the combination of her passions for sport for development and cross-cultural and conflict resolution dialogue.