KLM supports Johan Cruyff Welfare Foundation providing management training to disabled athletes

The Johan Cruyff Welfare Foundation and KLM have signed a sponsoring contract to begin management training for physically disabled athletes at the Johan Cruyff University in Amsterdam. The agreement will provide the Foundation with sufficient means to recruit candidates for its sports management training program and to hire in teaching aids and other facilities. The sponsoring contract will run for two years and include an option for extension. The actual support will amount to € 100,000, some of which will be in cash and a portion in the form of tickets.

The Johan Cruyff Welfare Foundation supports projects focusing on sports, games, and education for disabled and underprivileged children and young people. Former Dutch international hockey player Carole Thate is the foundation's director, who has an office in Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium. The foundation acquires all training materials for the Johan Cruyff University, which is a division of Amsterdam's adult vocational education system, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, under the direction of Willemijn Maas. Both the university and the foundation were initiated by Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruyff.

With its new sports management training course for the disabled, the Johan Cruyff Welfare Foundation aims to narrow the gap between athletes with or without a handicap and to stimulate the flow of disabled athletes into management positions. Furthermore, the integration of students - regardless of their physical state - will ultimately lead to Dutch sports management taking greater account of the role of disabled athletes in this country.

KLM supports this initiative as part of its policy of Corporate Social Responsibility. Working together with the Dutch Council of the Chronically Ill and the Disabled for the past few years, KLM has dramatically increased the level of service and special facilities for disabled travelers.