Prior to the next monthly meeting of SWOST, the team of Latvia consisting of two members - Sandija Zalupe and Kaspars Saknins, held a local two-day meeting to commonly seek and identify the documents related to gender stereotypes in Latvia and any references to documents in European Union Member States. The team of Latvia browsed homepages of all sport functionaries that impact legislation of Latvia in sport issues and the decision-maker homepages – Ministry of Education and Science, Olympic Committee of Latvia, Olympic Union of Latvia and Sports Federations' Council of Latvia. As none of the previously mentioned organizations had any material in relation to the gender stereotypes in sport, the team of Latvia went deeper in the research and directly communicated the organizations. It turned out the there are no specific gender stereotype legislation in sport except for Sports Law Section 3: "Basic Principles to be followed in the Field of Sport", which states 1) the principle of equality, which provides that every person have the right to engage in sport. On the basis of this sentence gender equality in sports is balanced throughout Latvia, starting with the 4 main organizations and moving on to vocational oriented education organizations – sport schools and sport clubs of Latvia, grassroots sport clubs and general education schools.

Additionally, it was decided that the team of Latvia within the month of March calls together its members  - the 83 sport schools, to find out if any of the sport schools and sport clubs have their own inner documents that govern the gender equality balance between men and women, as well as to discuss any other documents, articles, researches to be found.

Having agreed on monthly meetings, the SWOST team meat again on the 12th February to further discuss development of the Work Package 2 "Rationale setting and collection of good practices" with the following tasks:
task 1 - methodological assumptions and rationale setting,
task 2 - collection and review of good practices and tools already available.
LSIIDP applied for the implementation of the second task. Meanwhile all project partners are involved in the Work Package 1 "Project management and Quality Assurance" that goes through the whole project life-cycle.

Latvia this year is rich with snow and due to the pandemic situation people are doing various outdoor activities and so did we with the children of grades 1 and 2 on February 23. The second activity of the project WoW Europe was done on skis. This was a historical moment for except for two, the rest sixteen children did it for the first time. Nevertheless, you may see yourself that the children standing on skis for the first time ever, could even participate in a slight relay. Although the day was very cold 10 degrees below Celsius, thanks to the bright sun and the effort the new-beginners of skiing had to put in the activity, nobody felt cold. It was rather the opposite. 

The activity was led by the sports teacher Agris Ķirsis and an athlete, participant of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Kristaps Zalupe, who introduced himself to the children, told his view of the benefits of doing sports and physical activities, which he does even up to this day, and invited them to keep doing their physical activities on a daily basis. But, what is the most important in anything a person does - is to do it from the heart.

After the introduction both leaders of the activity - the sports teacher Agris Ķirsis and Kristaps Zalupe, showed exercises to help them keep the balance and do skiing (with fewer falls). What was the activity like? You may see it yourself in the video of the day HERE.

The first activity of the WoW Europe project was held on a very beautiful, truly wintery day. As the schools are still closed for learners of grades 5 - 12, and the smalls pupils of grades 1- 4 still are on holidays that started before Christmas already, the project team decided to hold the activity in the open air, which is allowed for the vocational education learners under their sport teachers or coaches.

The activity covered grade 5 learners of both Limbazi General Education Schools - Limbazi State Gymnasium and Limbazi Secondary School, as well as three students of elder classes (grade 8) assisting their coach and our activity's "star" - an athlete, a kayaker, an Olympian Kristaps Zalupe who back in 2008 ranked 7th in the Olympic Games in Beijing covering the discipline of K-2 1000m in sprint kayaking with his partner Krists Straume. Kristaps Zalupe lives in Limbazi and the small town can boast of having its own Olympian who stayed in his native town after his active sports career. Now, Kristaps is a coach in basketball leding his teams among the best youth teams of Latvian basketball. Kristaps teaches sport in a kinder-garden, too, and thus he knows the best approaches towards small children, school children, teenagers and youth.

The activity was held in the town's Skating-rink, which this year is open only for children and youth of vocational oriented education implemented by the local municipal sports school. The Olympian Kristaps Zalupe narrated of his first steps in sport when he himself was of the age of the five-graders. Kristaps mentioned his point of view of doing physical activities on a daily basis and shared his own activities now at the age of 44. Kristaps is cycling in the discipline of mountain bikes and ranks in the top of the best cyclers of grassroots class. Now, in winter, Kristaps does cross-country skiing at least 3 times a week and in the rest of days he either does gymnastics or rides an exercise bike.

Kristaps lead the activity together with the sports teacher of Limbazi State Gymnasium and also a coach of athletics - Agris Kirsis.

After the "official part" our Olympian and the sports teacher took up several skating relays, and Kristaps helped each child by individually explaining how to overcome each obstacle in the relay, which you can well see in the video of the day.

It was a marvellous time for each participant and we are looking forward for holding the next activity in March! And by this video we also want to encourage everyone to keep doing physical activities even in this lock-down situation!

Watch our video HERE!