The founder and benefactor of the Fund "FOR THE FUTURE OF FENCING", formerly an international saber fencer and presently a major businessman, Alisher Usmanov established the Fund with the aim of creating favorable conditions for successful and dynamic development of fencing on all continents of the globe and facilitating the preparation of fencers of national federations for participation in official International Fencing Federation (FIE) tournaments. The Fund's Board, made up of representatives of seven countries handpicked by Alisher Usmanov, has now been working toward this aim for more over a year.

From its inception, the Fund has been providing funds to pay for fencing gear and equipment for national fencing federations, conducting training and instructional workshops and conventions, repairing sports camps and facilities, providing organizational and material support for Paralympic fencing, funding the participation of individual athletes and coaches of national federations in international tournaments, financing scholarly and methodological research and development as well as publications on fencing.

With its donations the Fund has supported to some extent or another more than half of all national fencing federations, including those of Argentine, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Holland, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Salvador, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa Switzerland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam.

To date, the Fund's donations to national fencing federations have exceeded 1 million US. Currently, the Fund has active branches operating in Latin America, headquartered in Mexico City (Mexico), and in European countries, headquartered in Moscow (Russia). The Fund's branch established on the basis of the Praga-Letnany Fencing Center in Prague (Czech Republic) has started organizing and conducting instructional and training conventions and workshops. May 2006 saw the official registration of the Fund's representative office on the African continent, headquartered in Johannesburg (South Africa).

We are now opening the Fund's representative office in Asia and Oceania, headquartered in Almaty (Kazakhstan). Taking into account the experience acquired in 2005, at its May 2006 meeting the Board endorsed a program of the Fund's activities along with an implementation for the years 2006-2008.

The program outlines the Fund's priorities as follows:

- providing financial assistance to newly-established and developing national fencing federations;

- making donations toward creating, outfitting, and financing the operation of training and methodological centers (fencing academies) for the purposes of training and retraining athletes, coaches, and fencing referees on all continents;

- conducting, with the help of the Fund's activists and volunteers, regular instructional and training conventions for newly-established national fencing federations with the participation of the best fencing athletes and specialists, and instructional and methodological workshops for coaches and referees;

- providing material support for purposes of developing the theory and methods of fencing, preparing methodological literature and manuals, and developing modern technical equipment for the fencing sport;

- assisting the International Fencing Federation in its propaganda and popularization of fencing and in the pivotal question for the world's entire fencing community, namely the inclusion in the Olympic Games of all types of fencing and securing 12 sets of medals for the fencing sport.

The Olympic Charter rightly states that sport contributes to education, health, the economy and social order, which is why in its activity the Fund does not intend to be restricted solely to its program. It can prioritize any problem or challenge faced by the fencing community in general or any fencer in particular.

Fund President Aleksandr Mikhailov