Angola Visit: An itinerant mission

After landing in Angola, Milan’s cold humidity is a distant memory. Inter Campus' Italian delegation is welcomed by Luanda’s heat in their second visit of the year. It’s an itinerant visit on this occasion, since all the eight sections of the project were involved. In addition to cooperating with the coaches in exercise management and observing their ability to get the kids involved and relate with them, the objective is to meet and watch the kids and their coaches in the day-to-day situation and environments in which they grew up in and currently live in.

There were countless journeys over those seven days. We travelled over the capital’s chaotic and congested streets to get to the Mabubas, Palanca, San Josè, Trilho, Sao Paulo and Mota units . We followed the dismal, dusty and almost desert roads that lead to Dondo and Calulo, three and five hours away from Luanda respectively. They’re in the farmlands south-east of the city. We were able to meet our 48 local coaches and the hundreds of kids involved in the project.

During our stay in Angola, we were accompanied by Father William da Lima, the person in charge of the Polidesportivo Don Bosco, and by Gouveia Caquezo, educator at the Sao Josè oratory as well as our local head of the technical area. He is always with us, both for the on-pitch activity and the debates with the coaches after the activity on the field.

There were a lot of engaging and thrilling moments, such as the mens’ and womens’ finals of the Inter Campus National Tournament, which took place in Calulo. The usual enthusiasm from the kids and their families created a great atmosphere, but there was also a very touching moment: The visit to Keny’s family. Keny was one of our local educators/coaches who passed away two months ago at the age of 17 due to sickness. It's reminder that it is very tough to survive in this situation and that our commitment for education and support for youth takes on an extraordinary value, even if much is beyond our limited capability. 

Our journey won’t finish here... the next stop is in six months.