Celebration, support and panettoni for the Malindi suburban street kids' soccer school as it enters its 13th year of operation.
Since 2010, we have been sponsoring the work of youth coach David "Badili" Kenga, a phenomenal man who, after studying the psychology of raising local youth in the sport-education pair in the Nairobi slum of Mathare, has spent himself as a volunteer to take so many kids from the temptations of the street (drugs, petty crime, hardship) and through soccer bring them back to the school benches.
This is how Genoa Malindi was born (in honor of Italy's oldest team, of which director Freddie del Curatolo ago is a huge fan) and later, when the sponsorship of the Rossoblu team came to an end (thanks to that less-than-laudable person of former president Enrico Preziosi), it became Real Malindi, where "Real" in its English meaning stands for "true," as true is the reality little advertised on social media or promoted virtually, but also as pure is the heart of the kids who participate.
Yesterday, to celebrate the New Year, with Freddie, Badili and the historic captain of the first Genoa Malindi, Joseph Nyabawe, we gathered at Ganda Primary School's two baobabs field and brought a gift to the three youth teams that make up the soccer academy. A panettone cake for each of the boys' families, offered by Pasquale and Paola Pes of Olimpia Beach Club in Malindi, a big-hearted resident who in his Italian experience has known firsthand the reality of soccer as the salvation of so many suburban boys, starting when he was the right-hand man of AS Roma's historic president, Dino Viola.
Olimpia's 40 panettoni cakes arrived at their destination along with a liter of milk for each, delivered thanks to one of the donations from Genoa fans, particularly the telematics association "Grifoni in Rete." With the other funds that have arrived so far, we will continue to pay school fees for deserving children to continue their studies, as happened for Nyababwe to whom we will pay the last school fees and university exams in Eldoret this year. The wonderful day with the food delivery and confirmation of our commitment is captured in the video below.