FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE PITCH IN CAMEROON

Our trip to Cameroon began in Akono, 60km to the south of Yaounde towards Equatorial Guinea, with a training course for 14 long-serving local educator-coaches on the project. It was an unusually low turnout compared with our regular courses but this time we organised an advanced clinic aimed at part of the Inter Campus Cameroon coaches. The programme now involves 180 Centro Sportivo Camerunese (CSC) sites across the country with more than 2,000 kids who receive our support either directly or indirectly.

The theoretical course, which ends with an assessment to check the participants’ grasp of the Inter Campus method, is always followed by an afternoon session on the pitch involving around 60 children from four different sites in and around Yaounde. It was great to see some youngsters from Mvogada, a very run-down area where our coach Gerard Talla is doing sterling work to get kids off the streets and steer them clear of the temptations of crime. Our national contact point Francis Kammogne has told us that this is providing great results in terms of educational and community life.

We stopped by the Italian embassy on the penultimate day of our trip, meeting the ambassador Isopi, who showed president Mattarella around the country last spring as he visited the Mbalmayo Educational Guidance Centre (COE) with hundreds of our Nerazzurri kids in attendance. The ambassador confirmed that our very special yet effective way of working really is an outstanding Italian export.

Finally, our mission ended with a big celebratory tournament at the Youth Festival in the tough neighbourhood of Elig Edzoa. There the local population, made up predominantly of immigrants from Chad and the Central African Republic, built their own shacks near the railway lines and use the tracks as streets and a marketplace except for the two times a day when a train comes through. That’s when they remove their wares and furnishings before replacing them once the train goes by.

Here people are crying out for space to construct new makeshift buildings but our educators have convinced the community to keep a small clay patch free to use as a football pitch for the local children and adults. Sport really helps to bolster the educational work done by Milan’s CSC and COE, even more so now following the African Cup of Nations. Cameroonians dream of becoming Indomitable Lions like their national-team heroes and are happy to let their kids take part in Inter Campus activities.

The celebratory tournament featured 150 kids, along with a few mothers who had a penalty competition to win a plastic washbasin, very useful for everyday life. Coaches Giacomini and Redaelli got involved too, taking the kick-off to a round of applause, as did Morelli from the Cameroon consulate in Florence. They always provide Inter Campus with our visas and take active steps to aid what we do, in the knowledge that football helps to contribute to the growth of this country and forge a friendship between our two nations.

13.02.2017