FIRE

Spain: Football for the inclusion of refugees based on conviviality

Saturday 27 June 2020

Spain: Football for the inclusion of refugees based on conviviality
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The Dragones Football Club was founded in the neighbourhood of Lavapiés in the heart of Madrid, focusing from the start on the question on inclusion. The Dragones received funds from the FIRE project to organise one of the project’s pilot interventions: The MNA Football Festival. It took place between September and October 2019. The event proved to be unique and included several activities which allowed the participants to reflect on diversity.

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First, On September 21st, 2019, the second National Museum of Anthropology Tournament took place during the weeks against discrimination of FARE network. The tournament gathered around 150 families coming from different neighbourhoods. Culturally diverse teams played football matches on a football pitch located near the museum. Kids were invited to designed posters to support the players. The following Saturday, the Dragones organised an urban festival along with Afrojuice 195, a group of urban music. People gathered in joy around different cultural and sport activities. The day amazingly ended with an Afrojuice 195 concert. Finally, to close the weeks against discrimination, youth coming from countries recently affected by wars (such as Serbia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Jordan) followed a course which allowed them to reflect on sports and human rights. This active course also included football activities designed by the Dragones coaches.

The overall events gathered more than 300 participants, coming from different countries and triggered the participation of people from different cultural backgrounds.The events organised by the Dragones brilliantly succeeded in combining both cultural activities and football. These inclusive events provided new learning opportunities to challenge and reflect negative stereotypes in line with the FIRE project objectives.

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