Children's Rights in Greenland: north2north staff mobility story from the Ataatsimoorluta Aalasa Project
Nanna Berglund Jakobsen, from the University of Southern Denmark, spent time in Greenland interviewing children as part of a project focused on creating safe and healthy sports environments for all Greenlandic children.
From 11 November to 27 November 2025, I spent time in Nanortalik and Qaqortoq as part of the
data collection for the national population survey. Alongside this work, I was responsible for
interviewing children involved in the Ataatsimoorluta Aalasa project.
Ataatsimoorluta Aalasa is a collaboration between the Greenland Sports Federation (GIF) and UNICEF Greenland, carried out together with Paarisa. The project focuses on creating sports environments that are healthy, safe and inclusive for children across Greenland. It is based on the
principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (FN’s børnekonvention), ensuring that children’s rights and perspectives are central to the work.
During my stay, I interviewed children from several sports clubs in both towns. This included the kayak club, the boxing club, the climbing club and the football club. The conversations provided useful insight into how the children experience their sports activities, how included they feel and what their everyday training environment looks like.
To conduct the interviews, I visited different training facilities. In Qaqortoq, I spent time interviewing
place in the local sports hall. Being present in these settings helped me better understand the
context in which the children train and interact with their coach.
share their experiences, and the sports clubs were cooperative throughout the process. The
information gathered during these weeks will contribute to the evaluation of the Ataatsimoorluta
Aalasa Project and its efforts to strengthen sports environments for children in Kalaallit Nunaat.
This story was written by Nanna Berglund Jakobsen from the University of Southern Denmark as part of the north2north staff mobility program.