Inter Campus breaking down barriers in Bulgaria

MILAN - We recently paid a visit to Bulgaria, where Inter Campus has worked with the Stefan Noykov foundation since 1998, using football as a tool to promote the social integration of Roma boys and girls and the social inclusion of children in care homes.

For our most recent trip, a group of 30 kids from Banya made the journey by bus across the Balkan mountains to Troyan, where they joined around 50 youngsters from the local Inter Campus centre.

They spent three days together in a luxurious green setting with Inter Academy coaches Gabriele Raspelli and Davide Lubes running the sessions, watched on by local trainers Doncho, Vladimir and Midko. Children from both centres took part enthusiastically – two cultures working in perfect harmony in their Inter kits. The children who had travelled from Banya behaved impeccably both on and off the pitch

We then moved on to Dupnitsa, where Inter Campus set up a project in 2015 with a group of 30 children and teenagers from the Olga Stoyanov orphanage. The project aims to foster integration with children in the nearby state school by bringing down barriers and prejudices.

Time works against the children in this orphanage, as the older they become the less chance they have of being adopted, increasing the likelihood they will have to stay there until adulthood.

For 18 years, Inter Campus has been using football in Bulgaria as a means to spread values that can help educate the citizens of the future. The aim is to nurture the individual development of all Roma and Bulgarian children taking part in the various projects around the country, promote non-discriminatory access to education and reduce the number of early school leavers.