Not yet 14, André lived most of his life on the streets in the poorest parts of Luanda. With a mentally handicapped mother, without any certain information about his father or brothers, André learned how to look after himself thanks to a strong forceful character. Life wasn’t easy either with children of his own age; born with six fingers on each hand, in order to avoid being laughed at by the other children he cut off the extra finger on his right hand.
His life changed when he got to know the Salesians at the Kala Kala centre (which in the local language means “work centre”). Entrusted by the local authorities to the Sons of Don Bosco, the centre accepted André who now had available to him electronic laboratories, wood and metal workshops, building training, and responding to his youthful enthusiasm football pitches, tennis courts and a games room; all meant to help the holistic development a large numbers of local youngsters and street children.
André then joined the Salesian “Polidesportivo Dom Bosco” (PDM), sports group which operates in various centres around the country providing informal education to about 5000 boys and girls through football, volley-ball, basket-ball and handball. In 2008 PDM established a very useful collaboration with the Inter Campus programme, run by the Italian Inter-Milan FC with football training schools in some of the poorest parts of the world. At “Kala Kala” the Inter Campus supports about 350 children providing them with sports equipment and twice a year sending professional coaches to give training courses to the local coaches.
Thanks to this collaboration which brought together the sporting professionalism of Inter FC and the educative skills of the Salesians, Andrè was chosen to take part in the Ist “Inter Campus World Assemby” organised in September 2009 between Florence, Siena and Milan. As well as encouraging different cultures from every part of the world to meet with their traditions and folklore it also arranged for the young athletes to have a medical check-up. It was in this way that the doctors in the “Meyer” Pediatric Hospital in Florence discovered that Andrè has a heart malformation which without treatment would have killed him.
On Monday 12 July Andrè went into the Apuano Pediatric Hospital in Massa-Carrara. The following day he had a visit from the President of Inter FC, Massimo Moratti, and his daughter Carlotta, President of Inter Campus.
On Wednesday morning André had a complicated heart operation which lasted five hours. At the end, his heart was like new, and within twenty days of so he will be able to return to Angola. The operation was made possible by the involvement of Inter FC and the Tuscany Region who covered the costs.
André’s story which captivated the readers of SportsWeek, an insert of the popular Italian sporting daily paper “La gazzetta dello Sport”, shows how “team work” between those working on the front line with street children and those promoting solidarity is always a winner.
Published 16/07/2010
