Inter Campus: a visit to Cali in Colombia

CALI (Colombia) – Inter Campus coach Juri Monzani recounts recounts his recent trip to Colombia.

After the first day of the theoretical and practical refresher
course, which took up four mornings of the week, we visited and
played with the children from Inter Campus satellite Rozo, where
Salvatores’ documentary was filmed.

The next day Asociaciòn Deportivo Cali hosted 400 kids for a
party with interactive children’s games and folklore activities, which showed us just how good these Colombian
kids are at singing and dancing. The children then invaded
the swimming pool around midday. Later, while the youngest kids were having
a siesta, Henry Pedrosa – who is in charge of the psycho-social
area at our partner Crecer y Jugando – spoke to the parents and
youngsters present about the importance of upbringing and the
relationship between parents, children and coaches.

There were also moments touched with sadness, like when the mother of a
young boy called Yerington, who took part in the Inter Campus
programme in Villarica, spoke about losing her son just over a month
ago in a guerilla attack.

The next morning we were back at work on the technical training
course for local instructors, focusing on the 8-10 year age range,
which saw great participation from all involved, especially during the
demonstration for goalkeepers carried out by Sergio Maraia.

In the afternoon, we set off in Professor Heber’s 1987 Renault for
the Inter Campus centre in André Sanin, to the North-East of Cali, where different training sessions were run contemporaneously with more
than 40 kids aged 8-14 years old.

The course continued as planned with afternoon visits to the most
varied Inter Campus centres. The one in Yumbo is located in the
industrial zone on the outskirts of Cali, where air pollution is
unfortunately the main cause of the inhabitants’ illnesses. We went
there on International Women’s Day and ran a training session for 24
girls aged 11 to 14.

During our time in Cali we witnessed immense attention, passion and desire
to take part in the Inter Campus method.

Another demonstration of this was when we visited San Antonio
del los Cabelleros, an hour and a quarter’s drive from Cali: about 48
boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 14 trained on the large
pitch of the school. The activity was rounded off with some Chumpus, a local
drink made with maize and fruit that is drunk during the siesta.

30.03.2012