FIVB FoundationVolleyball Foundation
All over the world, the Foundation’s reach continues to grow
Two years in, the FIVB Volleyball Foundation has moved well beyond its founding promise. What began in May 2024 as a commitment to using volleyball as a vehicle for social change has grown into a global network of programmes touching thousands of lives.
The past year brought a defining moment of leadership: the appointment of HRH Princess Ayah Bint Faisal as Foundation President. A long-standing advocate for women in sport, she has helped accelerate the Foundation’s ability to grow, develop wider partnerships and cement volleyball’s place as a genuine driver of social progress. Read more about her appointment here.
That ambition is showing up in the numbers. In May 2026, the Foundation’s Board approved five new international projects spanning Africa, Asia, Oceania and Southwest Asia and North Africa – each one built on the same core belief that sport, done right, can meet communities where they are and create meaningful, lasting change. Read more here.
Gender equality and inclusion remain central to everything the Foundation does. Through initiatives tied to International Women’s Day and beyond, the Foundation has shone a consistent spotlight on programmes helping young women build confidence and leadership skills and stronger in safe and welcoming spaces.
Increasingly, the Foundation’s projects go further than volleyball alone. Educational workshops, mentorship programmes and wellbeing activities now sit alongside training sessions as standard, ensuring participants walk away with more than just skills on the court.
On the ground
Since their partnership with the Volleyball Foundation, its supported projects have used volleyball as a platform to address social issues, promote education and create leadership opportunities for thousands of people.
In Ethiopia, the Beyond The Net programme has reached 3,000 young people through weekly volleyball sessions at four schools. 18 teachers have been trained to run their own volleyball academies, and 12 solar streetlights have been installed – a detail that speaks to how the programme thinks about safety and access as much as sport.
India’s Brahmaputra Volleyball League has become one of the world’s most impressive grassroots volleyball operations. Running across 170 centres, it has delivered nearly 50,000 volleyball sessions and now serves as the entry point for 100% of Assam state volleyball players. Alongside the sport itself, 425 off-court education and awareness events run each year – a reminder that the League’s founders see volleyball and development as important goals that go hand in hand. In addition, Abhijit Bhattacharya, the former India men’s national volleyball team captain and founder of the Brahmaputra Volleyball League (BVL), has been named the Global Winner of the 2025 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) Champions Award for his work promoting gender equality in rural India through volleyball. The IOC GEDI Champions Awards recognise inspiring changemakers committed to advancing gender equality, diversity and inclusion in and through sport. Read more here.
In Jordan, the Volleyball Foundation’s partnership with Generations for Peace has focused on something harder to measure but no less vital: wellbeing. Working with displaced youth and vulnerable young people, the programme has delivered over 1,000 structured volleyball sessions, and 97% of participants report improved psychosocial wellbeing. The sport here is a means to resilience, community and a sense of normal life.
Kenya’s Githurai Kimbo Volleyball Academy has taken a direct approach to breaking down barriers – 41 athletes have been supported through education scholarships, alongside 240 volleyball sessions and 83 mentorship events. Moreover, close to 200 new participants have joined the programme since the start of the project’s partnership with the Foundation.
In Vanuatu, Volley4Change has woven volleyball into broader community life, including an inclusive sitting volleyball programme for athletes with disabilities that stands as one of the Foundation’s more innovative achievements. This is in addition to 70 volleyball sessions being delivered, 148 new participants having been reached and 71 off-court education and community engagement activities delivered.
Making the sport reachable
To celebrate the Foundation’s second anniversary, more than 500 AirVolleyballs and over 200 2025 World Championships balls have been distributed across the Foundation’s project network. AirVolleyball has played an important role in helping make volleyball more accessible, understandable and affordable, particularly in communities where access to facilities and equipment can be limited. Designed to be easy to set up and adaptable to different environments, AirVolleyball allows more young people to experience the sport regardless of location or resources.
The initiative reflects the Foundation’s wider mission of ensuring volleyball can truly be played anywhere and by everyone.
As the Foundation heads into its third year, the work speaks for itself. Across several continents, volleyball is opening doors that might otherwise stay closed – to education, to mentorship, to a sense of belonging. The sport brings people together. What the Foundation builds from there is something that lasts long after a player steps off the volleyball court.
