The Penta captain finds partners for a social project in which he uses football as a tool for social inclusion with young people in Brazil and Africa
Marcos Evangelistas de Morais, the cafuno longer has its foundation, closed in 2019 after accumulating debts, but has toured Brazil and the world at the head of social projects. The captain of the penta created last year the “Cafuzinhos do Sertão”initiative that serves 30 families in the city of Water Eye of the Flowersin the hinterland of Alagoas.
coffee and Maria Moraes, biographer of the former player, president of the Instituto Brilhante and also linked to social projects, was doing research on Brazilian cities with children whose nutritional deficit was alarming. They set their sights on Alagoas, a state with the worst Human Development Index (HDI) in the country, and found Olhos d’Água das Flores.
Little did they know that in the small municipality of Alagoas, with its arid climate, there was already a project that uses football as a ground of hope for a community that has a lot of trust but little assistance in the village of Pedrão. Annoyed by the young people roaming the streets, Manoel Ferreira dos Prazeres, a 60-year-old retiree, gathered 35 children and made them play soccer on a dirt field every Saturday morning.
“He brought these guys together to form a soccer team, but they didn’t have any structure,” Mariah says. This is where Cafu came into play. The former player made contacts, organized partners and obtained uniforms, balls and studs for the children, structuring the project. The clay court, surrounded by cacti, will be refurbished. The grass will be synthetic and there will be reflectors for boys and girls to dribble the heat of the hinterland and play at night.
Children receive a snack and families receive basic food baskets. All food is bought in the village to boost the local economy. Almost all children are enrolled in school. After structuring “one thousand percent” of Cafuzinhos do Sertão, Cafu has an ambitious goal.
“We want to extend the project to the whole country. There is no limit,” he predicts, who makes regular visits to the village. “We will start to form partnerships, mainly with municipalities, to see how far we can go. The intention is to give hope to these children, adds the latest player to date to lift the FIFA Cup world Cup from the Brazilian team.
Cafuzinhos of Nhamatanda
In Brazil this plan has not yet been put into practice. Abroad it is starting to be so, to the point of arriving in Africa. Through a friend who works in social assistance in Mozambique, Cafu and Mariah learned of the extreme poverty in which families live in a village in Nhamatanda, a district in the province of Sofala, in Mozambique. Thus was born Cafuzinhos de Nhamatanda». “Women make babies on the street. It’s a bleak scene,” Mariah relates.
The former right-back with successful passes in European football and two-times world champion with the Brazilian national team has not yet visited the site, but he has provided remote care to 50 HIV-positive children and 100 families in the village, 1,190km from the capital Maputo.
“I want to go where people have zero life prospects, zero growth prospects, zero hopes and zero dream fulfillment,” says the five-time captain.
“I was shocked when I saw the videos of the children and found that most of the children we started helping were HIV positive. You give them medicine to fight the virus (anti-AIDS cocktail) and they are hungry, but they don’t I have nothing to eat”, account.
He says the schedule has not yet allowed him to travel to the Mozambican village, but that he will soon, through June. His idea is to build a clinic by the end of the year, which will benefit 500 families, as well as a study, sports and culture centre.
Source: Terra
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