INTER CAMPUS ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: THE WORD TO THE MISTERS

Tel Aviv – Yorai was born in 2000 in Israel and decides to perform civil service instead of compulsory military service. During the civil service he asked and obtained help for African refugees residing in Tel Aviv and became part of the volunteer staff of Elifelet, one of the associations with which Social Goal (our partner in the area) works. During his civil service, Elifelet’s children are the beneficiaries of the Inter Campus project who train weekly with the local children.
Over the years we have extended collaborations to other associations dedicated to refugees, Yorai has finished three years of civilian service, but has remained with us, in the Inter Campus Tel Aviv team and weekly trains a mixed group of children, refugees and non-refugees.
“The most significant moment of the Inter Campus experience – says Yorai – was the summer camp in July 2020, where for a whole week the children spent many hours together every day between football, climbing, swimming: an integration all-round that gave the children the opportunity to get to know each other better and to create new friends ”.
In the Tel Aviv project, Yorai is joined not only by Besan, an Arab coach, and Arturo, an Italian who moved to Israel, both with us for years, by a new coach, Simon and a welcome return, Salah.
Simon is the same age as Yorai, 22, and at 7 he arrived in Israel with his parents from Asmara, Eritrea. A long journey on foot that brought him to Tel Aviv where he was lucky enough to be adopted by an Israeli family that allowed him to grow up spending a happy childhood, just a few minutes drive away from his natural parents, who are always at Tel Aviv, and which he obviously sees very often.
Simon has a knack for sports, especially football, and has been training for a local team for years. Unfortunately he was unable to participate in the local championships as he is still without citizenship today.
“I love working for this project, he tells us, not only for the value it gives to integration but also for the possibility of offering hope to refugee children who, like me, cultivate the dream of participating in a youth football championship. alas still not allowed to refugees. ”
Salah is 34 years old, he left Sudan in 2008 on foot towards Chad, from there by car to Libya where he obtained another passage to Egypt from which he then arrived on foot in Israel.
“I have been an Inter Campus coach since the opening of the Tel Aviv project in 2013 and thanks to the intervention of Social Goal I managed to avoid being imprisoned in the Holot refugee camp, which opened in December 2013 and fortunately closed permanently 4 years later.”
Today Salah is back with us after a few years’ break, and in these days he is celebrating his first Israeli identity card, finally a full citizen and, according to him, thanks also to his involvement with Inter Campus.
Three stories of life and commitment that parallel to those of the children testify how it is possible to think and realize an important goal: to integrate with ethnicities and cultures other than one’s own, thanks to the game of football, all Nerazzurri!

10.01.2022