Inter Campus Mexico, the stages of the project

The mission in Mexico has seen plenty of stages over its existence. After the activities in Mexico City and the district of Tepito, we cross an imaginary border and head into the State of Mexico, Ecatepec de Morelos, the largest municipality in Latin America, where, alongside the UNEVE State University, our collaboration since 2012 has made it possible to run football training sessions and provide a small oasis for children, families and staff to escape from the danger of life in the area.

Our work with the University began in 2012, and we’ve been carrying out a study on roughly 60 children from the project and their families over the course of the last year, the research’s aim to evaluate the impact of the project on its participants. Listening to how grateful the children’s families are is always nice, and serves as a good reminder of the positive contribution that the project provides to their lives, with all of the data from the last year supporting the families’ words.

We then head north-west by car, roughly 200km away to the colonial city of Santiago de Queretaro. Inter Campus has had two project centres here since 2003, one in the elementary school of Girasol and another in the suburb of Bolanos. The children of the Inter Campus project follow an educational path that serves as support for the work of their families and our tireless Marcelline Sisters, who look after them and provide their education.

From Queretaro we drive to Silao, where, together with Pirelli, we work with 130 children and four local coaches. You can feel the tension as we approach the infamous state of Michoacan, where attacks on passing cars are the order of the day, also passing through Salamanca where the talk moves on to the names of the families and drug cartel bosses who dominate the area.

Having reached the project centre in Silao in the State of Guanajuato, which in recent years has also become famous for its constant news stories, the mission ends with three days of activities on the pitch, with the aim of preventing underage delinquency by educating young people on the themes of respect and gender equality.