FOCUS ON BOLIVIA: INTER CAMPUS THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS PROTAGONISTS

It was 1987 when I first left for Cochabamba for a month-long experience at the Ciudad del Niño, an orphanage founded and run by the Patronage of San Vincenzo in Bergamo. The children there immediately won my heart and from then on I decided to spend long holidays in Bolivia every year. In 1993 I had the chance to stay for six months and when I returned to Italy I decided to move to Cochabamba permanently. That was back in 1994. I met my wife Veronica the same year and after the wedding, we decided to work together in helping the people most in need.

We opened an educational centre for children, involving them in educational and recreational activities which were for their mothers too, organising several workshops with the support of long-distance adoptions, one of those by the great Giacinto Facchetti.

It was thanks to him in 2008 that I met Inter Campus and that we became a part of this great family.

One of my most beautiful memories is our participation in the Inter Campus World Cup in 2009. The children travelled from Bolivia to Italy where they had the chance to meet and play together with children their age from all over the world, a unique experience that will remain forever in their hearts.

Many Inter Campus coaches have arrived from Italy to help train the local coaches and to run activities with the children, and each of them helped make memories that the children will never forget. Currently the programme in Cochabamba involves plenty of children who all train on a daily basis.

The ritual of handing out the shirts is also one of the most exciting moments of it all, making the children feel like a true part of the great Nerazzurri family.

06.12.2019