THE RIGHT TO PLAY – JULIETTE AND WENDHRIS’ STORIES

Like everyone in Petare, the families of Juliette and Wendhris earn just a few dollars a month: the equivalent of a few kilos of rice, half a chicken, and some vegetables. Finding a job is very difficult because there are few prospects.

A few months after we last met them, Juliette and Wendhris – aged 14 and 17 – arrive at the camp with their little girls in their arms. They take part in the girls’ group training and leave their daughters off the pitch with someone from the community. The fathers are there, yes, in the sense that they are still alive, but who knows where and with what goals. The companions of the two girls can’t wait to run to the newborns and cuddle them a little, helping their friends however they can. They understand that in a few months’ time they may be in the same situation and maybe they will need help too; they also understand that in Venezuela there is no maternity protection, for the dignity of women, for having probably been the consenting victims of a good night without guarantees about tomorrow.

Perhaps one of the few protections is Inter Campus, understood as a recognised, structured group, a family identified with a colour, indeed two colours, and a shirt. Thanks to the support of some local organisations, a hot meal and a few drinks come at the end of each workout, and specific educational moments are organised for sexual orientation since early pregnancies and the absence of a stable father figure are now the norm.

Today, in the Inter Campus group, only two are mothers, and this is already a success: the protective curtain of protection of the Nerazzurri project does its part, in terms of mitigating domestic violence, in preventing gender discrimination and in giving the girls an identity in addition to a name, surname, and age. What seems like an accelerated path to adulthood is perhaps actually a burnt-out stage of life that does not wait around, that chases its instincts and ends up as prey to social inequalities and poverty.

Juliette and Wendhris’s daughters will soon grow up with their mothers, who will go through full adolescence and then adulthood, an age that is perhaps already achieved through experiences and through being family women without having a complete family at their side. So then there remains the Inter Campus, which perhaps compensates a little for this absence, with the love that it brings and the respect that comes with it. In the meantime we wait for the girls to grow up and to join in our smiles.

30.03.2021