Turn your selfies into a superpower 📸

Hello <<First Name>>,

Given that World Table Tennis Day (WTTD) is less than a month away, we are getting ready to celebrate our beloved sport within our table tennis family, while also inviting everyone who is interested in trying it out and joining us on 6 April – hopefully this includes you, too.

This year’s edition concentrates on FEMpowerment and gender equality – but table tennis allows us to address social difficulties in a variety of ways. One example is shedding light on issues or highlighting strong, inspirational female athletes to give them space to talk about issues like gender inequality, discrimination, abuse or unequal pay. 21 March marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is why we want to use this opportunity to talk about intersectionality.

As we have already displayed in one of our first newsletters, the reality of Covid-19 further increases gender inequality and heightens the risk of gender violence. In light of 21 March, we want to address the phenomenon of intersectionality may not be that known as a concept, but nonetheless unfortunately occurs every day all around the globe. It describes the effect of various forms of discrimination being applied to certain groups of a society. Discrimination against certain sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, gender, socio-economic conditions, education, among others can coincide. Did you know, for example, that Afrodescendent women in Latin America are up to 43.7 % less likely to find a job than non-Afrodescendent men?

Through table tennis, we can all make a difference by speaking up and shedding light on issues like this, whether we take actions big or small. Seize this opportunity and organise and register your WTTD event for FEMpowerment to deliver a message. In our sport, in our community, we stand hand in hand for diversity – and together, we can make a change.

Strike a pose with us!

Do you want to show your support on social media and share it with the world? Then join our FEMpose campaign: We invite all of you to share pictures striking a pose as shown in the exemplary pictures below to show how you support girls and women. We want to see girls and women showing us their strength and power! Share your FEMpose tagging a friend to join the campaign and using the hashtags #FEMpowerment and #WorldTableTennisDay so we can see your contributions.

But that does not mean that they are the only ones who can participate – we want boys, men and everyone who identifies with another gender identity to strike a pose, too! Show how you support women and girls, show that we can achieve big changes by standing together!

6 April Stream: Get ready for a whole day filled with table tennis!

Given the global health crisis and restrictions, we could not carry out a physical main event for 6 April as we had hoped to. But this doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on a great celebration of our beloved sport and WTTD!

On 6 April, we will run a 24-hour live stream of all things table tennis has to offer. We will cover all time zones and provide content around the clock, from 00:00 (UTC+1) until 23:59 (UTC+1). This way, you, too, can join in on the table tennis fun for WTTD 2021! For this year’s edition, we have gathered some of the greatest matches to re-watch, get as close as physically distances possible to your table tennis idols in our Meet-and-Greet-sessions or get moving with us for some workouts and coaching sessions! We look forward to seeing you there on 6 April 2021 – wherever you are.

Are you ready for WTTD?

How do you plan to support girls and women in your community on WTTD 2021? If you want to get inspired by best practices or find ideas for activities, read some of our newsletter editions for WTTD 2021, which is all about FEMpowerment through table tennis:

ideas for how to organise physical, digital and blended events, depending on the situation and regulations of your country
best practice: find out how the Ecuadorian Table Tennis Association implemented the ITTF High Performance & Development’s programme “My Gender. My Strength.” in 2019
find out more about Table Tennis Australia’s girls-only introductory programme to create a safe space for them and get more girls and women involved in table tennis long-term
read about the conference on gender equality we organised in cooperation with ITTF High Performance & Development and held on International Women’s Day – or re-watch it if you missed it!

Certificate of participation

As every year, we offer a certificate of participation to everyone who organises an event for WTTD. Organisers can then fill out and even personalise the certificates with their logos to hand it out to their participants. You can already download and print or send our Certificate of Participation now. This makes the WTTD experience of everyone who joined your event even more special and unforgettable, while your participants will feel appreciated and proud!

Ready, set, go!!

Have you registered your event yet? It is not too late to do so! Go to our website to register your WTTD event and details about your activities, make your flag wave and see your event on our WTTD event map! Or check out the map to see what kind of events are organised in your region that you can join on or around 6 April.

Keep staying positive and testing negative!

Please feel free to contact us in case of questions, comments or remarks. We will be happy to read you: april6@foundation.ittf.com or via WhatsApp +49 175 922 6547

Copyright © 2021 ITTF Foundation, All rights reserved.

Richard-Wagner-Str. 10 – 04109 Leipzig – Germany

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