(Translation of an article published in the newspaper Superdeporte de Valencia and the blog “Penya Valencianista per la Solidaritat,” which financed FAR’s sports training program this year).

My name is Jacques, but everyone in Rimkieta calls me “Coach.”  Rimkieta is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.  Burkina is number 183 of the 188 countries in the 2015 Human Development Index.  I’ve been working for FAR since 2011.  I’m the assistant manager of the “training and reinsertion of street children” and the “sports training” projects, in which we currently have 102 and 80 children, respectively, receiving training.

Article published in the newspaper “Superdeporte”

Sports training is a project that gathers boys from 8 to 18 to play their favorite sport – soccer – in order to keep them off the streets.  In Rimkieta there are many children who, when not in school, are susceptible to running into bad elements on the street that can lead them to into all sorts of danger:  robbery, forced work, drugs, disease, violence, prostitution… They are the children of broken homes due to poverty and a serious lack of care from their parents.  They have no one to encourage them to study and do their homework in the afternoons, so they head to the streets to roam free in search of easy money.

FAR’s sports training program is quite important, then.  Not only do we teach the kids soccer, but also educational and sportsmanlike values that give them motivation to continue their studies and acquire life skills that they do not get at home. Our training program has been designed to form athletes with values.  They receive:

1. LIFE SKILLS, in values through sports. The athletic training begins every week with a chat designed to transmit the importance of teamwork, respect for each other and for the rules, how to lose with grace, perseverance, loyalty, effort, sportsmanship, etc.  In the practices and games we make sure these ideas are being put into practice, and we talk to the kids using concrete examples of things we have observed during the week, at the end of practice.

2. ATHLETIC TRAINING, adapted to the various levels of play (“poussins”, “minimes”, “cadets” y “juniors”) that correspond to the players’ age, according to the rules established by the Burkinabe National Soccer League. The boys are delighted to learn the sport’s most technical skills and move up from one category to the next.
   
   

   Warming up before a match

3. THE ADRENILINE OF COMPETITION. We are part of the league that includes Rimkieta and neighboring areas.  The boys enjoy weekly local competition, often playing barefoot on hard dirt fields, most of which have a few rocks on the ground for a goal.

4. PLAY ON GRASS FIELDS. We also participate in championships against teams in big training centers and recognized soccer teams. The kids love these excursions!  For one, it’s the only opportunity most of them have to ride a bus (rented for these occasions) and go beyond their neighborhood.  But what is especially exciting for them is to have the opportunity to play on a real or artificial grass field.  The kids go crazy with delight when we tell them we have a game on a grass field, even though they know we will have a hard time winning a game like that for our complete lack of practice on that type of terrain.
   
   

   An attacker shoots for goal

5. A DREAM – every kid’s dream – to become a professional player! We use this dream to motivate them to go to school and get good grades, because they must be doing well in school to be admitted into FAR’s sports training program.  Unlike the other soccer training centers in Burkina, that only teach winning and seek future stars, FAR is above all a school of life for Rimkieta’s kids.

This school of life is supported this year by the “Penya Valencianista per la Solidaritat” so we can keep on training professional athletes with values in Rimkieta.  On behalf of all the boys and their “coach,” our deepest gratitude.