Over 20 years and counting: Inter Campus Pernambuco

RECIFE - With five training bases and 500 children involved in it, Inter Campus’s project in and around Recife is one of its oldest. Initially limited to the Brazilian city, Inter Campus’s work has spread further afield and now includes areas scattered throughout the state of Pernambuco. We are reminded of this by our instructors, many of whom have been with us from day one, and also by former children – now adults – who were with us and who still keep informed about what is going on. Inter Campus works in different places and municipalities, such as Araçoiaba and Aguazinha, as well as rural and urban areas, with all these places suffering from different social problems. These issues, however, can be combatted through sport wherever they occur.

More than 20 years ago, the main problem here was poor school attendance. Today, Inter Campus aims to stop violence and drug use, the latter of which is unfortunately very widespread and occurs around the pitches where we play. Remaining together is the rule we go by: we want to teach the children the strength of unity.

This is a message that we transmit verbally at the end of each training session, on the pitch and through the social work we do. Furthermore, delegations from each training base have represented their teammates and become spokesmen for the values of football when large tournaments have been held.