A Danish financial asset management company, Exact Invest, has provided the Augustinian Recollect project that cares for girls and adolescents who are victims of violence and abuse with a new basketball court where the jumps and runs of the beneficiaries can already be heard.
On August 31, a new basketball court was inaugurated at the Saint Monica’s Home, a project of the Augustinian Recollects in Fortaleza, Brazil, that takes in girls and adolescents sent by the competent authorities after having lived in aggressor contexts and having suffered or run a very serious risk of suffering any type of violence, abuse, abandonment, dropping out of school or labor or sexual commercial exploitation.
Within the comprehensive care program for its beneficiaries, the Saint Monica’s Home must seek a reasonable mix and balance between discipline and fun, between an orderly and regulated life and happy and joyful experiences, between a hopeful present and future, full of smiles, in contrast to a past full of wounds and difficulties.
The beneficiaries, once they arrive at the Saint Monica’s Home, must follow a schedule and discipline, return to formal school and guided study. For them, the change is very hard, since they come from contexts where there was no order, education, affection or attention.
From the moment they enter the Home, they go through special therapies and learning, sometimes costly and requiring moments of inner testing, because they have to overcome experiences that were very negative and painful and they arrive accustomed to a chaotic and neglected pace of life.
But in the experience of the Home there must also be moments of play and leisure, of sport and walking, of discoveries and experiences of childhood and adolescent vitality that expand the mind, knowledge, feelings and heart.
Sport is a great ally in this process. Due to its characteristics, it offers many positive aspects for growth, which are intensified in the beneficiaries of the Saint Monica’s Home by having such determined and determining life experiences.
In the case of basketball, its practice includes values such as teamwork, strategy, the desire to excel, mutual support, self-confidence… These are fundamental in the specific recovery for these girls and teenagers and facilitates future social reintegration.
In addition to being a consolidated sport in Brazil, basketball is a powerful tool for physical, emotional and social development, it encourages discipline by being a fun activity and channels energies in a positive way, creating a healthier and less tense environment in the day-to-day life of the Home.
The Exact Invest management company is developing important capital in the Brazilian Northeast as well as extensive corporate social responsibility programs. The dream of having this basketball field has finally materialized through this alliance between the company and the Home.
Representatives of Exact Invest were present at the official inauguration. The Saint Monica’s Home, its collaborators, volunteers and beneficiaries were delighted to inaugurate this new sports space that will be added to the existing leisure and sports infrastructure.
The opening party included music, dancing, food and drink and, of course, basketball games. Now it is ready to be used as part of daily routines. Exact Invest‘s social investment allows us to have a new tool to transform the lives of the beneficiaries and build a more just and inclusive society.
