Suffice it to say that the famous director Guy Ritchie found it a suitable setting to film some sequences of an Afghanistan at war for his film ‘The Covenant’. Colonia Requena is not only one of the poorest neighborhoods in Spain, but “it is in Alicante, but it doesn’t seem like Alicante, it seems like you are entering another dimension.”
Whoever expresses such a desolate impression is not, however, a defeatist; quite the opposite. This is a young neighbor from the neighborhood, Alicia Martínez Moreno, who is involved in all causes that contribute to improving life in these godforsaken streets; the last, a free basketball plan for boys and girls in the neighborhood.
Colonia Requena “is in Alicante, but it doesn’t seem like Alicante, it seems like you are entering another dimension”
The idea arose during one of the activities that seek to unite an area made up of very disparate people, coming from different corners of the planet, a party against racism in which the city’s basketball team, Lucentum, participated, thanks to the mediation of his most loyal group of fans, the members of the Kali Nord club.
Gabi Sánchez, its spokesperson, emphasizes the particularity of a neighborhood that “when you visit it and you realize that there are children who have not seen the sea in a city like Alicante, your head explodes.” Watching the boys and girls running around the court chasing a ball, the idea arose.
Group image of those involved in the implementation of the plan, representatives of the residents, Kali Nord, Lucentum and Alicante City Council.
Lucentum
From what was said to what was done, he had a first conversation with Ignacio Alonso, vice president of the Lucentum Foundation, the entity that has managed the professional basketball team that plays in LEB Oro since 2015. Alonso accepted the proposal with enthusiasm: “it could be the social project of our lives,” he says without hesitation. Then, since last spring, efforts and more efforts to achieve, among other things, some municipal support, permits, insurance…
Alicia is aware that everything has to be done, but check that before starting the training, scheduled a couple of times a week for boys and girls from 9 to 17 years old, without having posted a sign she already has a waiting list for the 30 initial places. “In Colonia Requena there is no sport for everyone because at the moment there are no decent facilities, the maintenance and cleaning of the sports facilities is the first necessity,” he says.
Despite the initial modesty of the plan, all those involved are convinced that the possibilities for growth are enormous
Despite the initial modesty of the plan, all those involved are convinced that the possibilities for growth are enormous, as well as the challenge of providing free access to sport to minors who today have no possibility of paying a token, the registration to a club or the medical insurance necessary to participate in a world, grassroots, healthy, fun and educating sport, which should be within the reach of all boys and girls.
“I think it is going to be the project that marks a before and after for our social mass, for our sponsors, and for the city,” emphasizes the spokesperson for the Lucentum Foundation. “What is now is tiny compared to what will be, because we intend to extend it to the entire northern area,” he says.
“The objective is to create a neighborhood identity through sport,” says Alicia, who has a grassroots coach card, “and establish links with the city, with the values that sport promotes, which is a brutal tool for social inclusion. , and more so for a neighborhood like this.”
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2024-10-14 03:18:00