Expanding Youth Horizons in Brazil Through Rugby

Our rugby programme has got off to a great start and we are already seeing some of our aims being achieved and even though the children face great barriers to fully participate, this does not get them down. When I asked Henrique why he was training rugby he told me "it's fun and a good sport and there are different things (I do)".

This weekend he and 15 other boys and girls between 10 and 13 years old took part in a rugby festival held in a very smart area of the city with dozens of children from ten other teams. One of the aims of our programme is to mix social classes and this really happened during the festival as in many games, teams were mixed together and looking at the photos, you would never guess that the players had very different daily lives. They played together, on field and offit and also went off in different groups playing and chatting when they were not on the field - all just being children.

After all the matches, all the children lined up proudly to receive their medals and then went to change and something which for us is normal caught the attention of some of the mothers of the club that hosted the festival. About half of our team members returned the boots they were using to the coach (they train with us without proper footwear and so to be able to take part in festivals like this, we lend them proper boots); I was asked what this was about and when I explained, the mothers immediately said that they would do a campaign to get donated boots so that all the children who train with us can have their own. This is part of the spirit of rugby and why we believe in its power to tranbsform our children.