INTER CAMPUS RETURNS TO CARACAS FAVELA

CARACAS – Petare, just outside Caracas, is one of the biggest favelas in South America – so big that it spreads across numerous districts. One of these is San Isidro, where Inter Campus has been working for a number of years.

The children arrive on foot and some are accompanied by their parents, who stay to watch training. But this apparently normal atmosphere is at odds with the dramatic situation Venezuela is experiencing.

We spend morning and afternoon in the community, playing football and taking part in the daily life of the neighbourhood and its people. We have lunch with Mario, one of the local coaches who kindly takes us into his home and introduces us to his family. We feel safe with him – a well-known figure – walking along the narrow, colourful streets to the pitch.

As we pass from one house to the next, parents appear at the windows and we feel welcomed, despite the protective bars they peer through – a feature of every building here.

The children hurry to finish getting ready and follow us down to the pitch. The boys slip on their trainers and the girls – already wearing their Inter shirts – tie back their hair so it doesn’t get in the way as they play. No one wants to arrive late. In dribs and drabs they pour out from the houses and join the procession. A stream of black and blue hustle forms behind us.

We run the training sessions at the kindergarten where we met with local representatives on our last visit here. It’s rudimentary but the coloured chalk, dolls and toy cars serve as a reminder that children play the same way here as they do in Italy.

At 17:00 we leave San Isidro and return to our hotel as an unwritten curfew begins. The younger kids hug us and cling on for a moment trying to keep us there but they know we’ll be back in a few months and this helps motivate them to keep playing.

25.10.2016