SPAIN

(MissionNewswire) Cadiz Virgili Don Bosco, a five-a-side soccer club founded at the Don Bosco Institute in Cadiz, Spain, has expanded its sports-educational offerings with a team dedicated to people with disabilities known as the Eyser team. Training for team members takes place free of charge on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Don Bosco Institute.

The team’s name honors George Eyser, the first Olympic athlete with a disability, who won six medals as a gymnast. The Eyser team was an initiative of the Don Bosco team’s coaches, Teresa Atero and Néstor Villegas, and has received the support of the Don Bosco Polideportivo Club and of the five-a-side soccer team Cadiz Virgili Futsal.

Cadiz Virgili Don Bosco currently has several teams engaged in tournaments and training. The teams are run by qualified and certified coaches who, with the support of the Salesian community, promote the individual care and development of athletes.

Villegas noted, “The new team for persons with disabilities is a team that five-a-side soccer needed, and we are fortunate to have qualified people to carry it forward. With this team, people with functional diversity will have a place and an opportunity to play sports, have fun and learn and play five-a-side soccer.”

Salesian Father Rafael Cazorla, coordinator of the Salesian sports club, added, “We want to achieve greater integration in sport. It is very important to work in this direction and that is why we want this team to continue to grow and be able to compete in tournaments in the near future.”

Salesian missionaries have been working for many years to provide educational and workforce development opportunities for poor youth and women in Spain through residential, technical and vocational training programs. Although teachers are available to start providing distance learning again in the event of a new lockdown, the importance of face-to-face education is emphasized in Salesian schools.

Close to 37 percent of young Spanish workers under the age of 25 are unemployed and a growing number of them can’t afford to buy enough food to live. Poor youth with few employable skills struggle the most to find and retain stable employment. Women in Spain face inequality in the workforce. They earn up to 14 percent less than men and represent only 34.5 percent of those listed as the highest earners in Spain.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Spain – Integration through sport: “Eyser” team of “Cadiz Virgili Don Bosco” club

Salesian Missions – Spain

World Bank – Spain

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The EcoClub has installed recycling points throughout the institution and organized an ecological fashion show. The club has also held a week for internal recycling, which collected more than 3,500 kg of material. EcoClub members enjoy ecological walks and have educated the community, encouraging them to use the institution’s recycling collection center.

Rodríguez said, “The theme of the environment attracted me from an early age. During my adolescence, I had the opportunity to participate more consciously in these processes. I reconsidered my position about the environment, and I began to develop an ecological way of thinking, which led me to engage in my own little world.”

“Being part of this group (EcoClub) meant that I could support my mother and share things with her that she was also interested in, and also generate real change in society,” added Rodríguez. “I did not imagine what we would achieve as a group, as a school and as a neighborhood. Nor did I imagine what I would learn and how my environmental awareness and my training would be consolidated.”

The Don Bosco Technical Institute is part of the Don Bosco Green Alliance whose members work to create an environment that is safe and caring for all life on the planet while building up a new generation of environmentally committed citizens and leaders. The Alliance’s priorities are combating pollution, reducing global warming and eliminating disposable plastics. In each of these areas, it aims to partner with ongoing global campaigns promoted by the United Nations Environment Program (UN Environment) or other international organizations.

“Through the Don Bosco Green Alliance, I was selected as a speaker during last year’s United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, together with three young women from Germany, Papua New Guinea and Ghana,” explained Rodríguez. “We presented our efforts for the environment from our different perspectives and situations, and it was an opportunity to understand that there is more future than we believe and that we can do more than we think.”

He added, “Through schools such as the Don Bosco Technical Institute and its EcoClub, and foundations such as Eco Creando, young people can learn to take care of the environment and improve their behavior. Organizations such as Don Bosco Green Alliance give young people a voice to be heard and to get their message across.”

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Panama – A green revolution by no means negligible

Don Bosco Green Alliance

Don Bosco Green Alliance Facebook

Don Bosco Technical Institute

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