Nelson Todt kicked off partnership with Cape Verde committee for educational materials in Portuguese
School of Health Sciences professor Dr Nelson Todt will expand his actions as representative of the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee (IPCC) for the entire Latin American continent. The goal setting came early in May after he participated in the Committee’s General Assembly, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Todt currently serves as the president of the Pierre de Coubertin Committee in Brazil (CBPC), which has been based at PUCRS since 2008. “I advise the activities developed at the National Committees and work on the creation of new committees”, he comments.
These actions involve universities and other Olympic Studies researchers. As a result, new partnerships and institutional agreements are made possible. At the international level, the joint actions have made it possible for the institution to partner with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln (Germany) and Technical University of Kaiserslautern (Germany).
In Todt’s view, the consolidation and galvanization of actions of internationalization resulting from the Olympic activities developed at PUCRS, either by the Research Group in Olympic Studies (GPEO), or by CBPC, will be materialized in events and collaborative research. “We need to bear in mind that a new Olympic cycle begins with the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 and the seed that has been sown over the last couple of years with the leading role played by PUCRS in the Olympic cycle of 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) has brought about a number of teaching and research activities”, he adds.
New educational material
Todt’s visit to Lausanne also paved the way for a new project involving PUCRS’ GPEO and the International Olympic Committee, through a partnership with the Cape Verde Olympic Committee, to publish educational materials in Portuguese. All efforts will be made to reach out to the Portuguese-speaking community all over the globe, which is now estimated at 250 million people in nine countries where Portuguese is the official language. The plan is to look to educational and sports institutions interested in promoting Olympic Education.
The material will consist of an Olympic Education toolkit called Olympic Values Education Program (OVEP). It will come in four volumes that will guide teachers and professionals in an effort to work and disseminate Olympic Studies and the philosophy of life brought forth by its major exponent Pierre de Coubertin. The revision and editing will be under the responsibility of the University. The publication will be available at no charge and is expected to be released, in both hard copy and digital formats, in 2020.
