Ansuma is one of the 213 children who this year are part of the socio-sports school project that the Real Madrid Foundation has developed in Sierra Leone together with "Misiones Salesianas". “The school taught me much more than football. I have learned to control my temperament and now I also help at home and in school activities", explains the young footballer.
Four football teams, two basketball and three volleyball teams, make up the offer of the "Don Bosco" Socio-Sports School in Lungi – involving 70, 45 and 98 students, boys and girls, respectively. For this season, a sports centre has been renovated and the equipment and sports equipment necessary for the activities have been made available to the children.
The project also includes participation in extracurricular sports competitions. This season, one of the basketball teams participated in a national championship in the country's capital and won the final two months ago. In addition, to close the campaign, the school's football teams will participate in an internal tournament.
M’Balia is one of the players on the women's football team. "In addition to my skills in dribbling, passing and controlling the ball, now I don't get sick so easily and I discovered my vocation thanks to one of the sports subjects we are taught: Physical Health Education", the girl says enthusiastically. These socio-sports schools are not only about sport: children learn social values, the environment, health and hygiene, and receive remedial lessons at different stages of the school year.
The "Don Bosco" centre in Lungi is one of the 22 bodies that are part of this alliance that Misiones Salesianas has established with the Real Madrid Foundation. A collaboration that, since 2010, has been present in 15 countries on three continents and that helps more than 4,000 children every year.
The Salesians have been working in Sierra Leone since 1986 in three presences: Lungi, Freetown and Bo. Here they offer children a comprehensive education through various educational and social programs that also benefit their families, given that Sierra Leone was one of the countries most affected by the Ebola epidemic a decade ago, and many children have been orphaned as a result.
The programme in Sierra Leone also provides for the distribution of textbooks to children and the provision of food, including hot meals and snacks for all participants, to help them meet their basic nutritional needs and develop a strong immune system. The majority of the participants benefiting from the program, 188, come from areas at risk of social exclusion, and 22 from contexts of violence.
Some of the distinctive traits of the Real Madrid Foundation's socio-sports schools are perfectly coincident with the characteristics of Salesian environments, such as joy, respect for others and solidarity; and all these values are summarised in the motto that benefits thousands of children in vulnerable situations around the world: "They play, we educate".
Source: Salesian Missions
