TEHRAN – Inter Campus has finally returned to Shahre Rey, the district with the lowest average income in Tehran, a city of 16 million inhabitants.
We will be working in collaboration with the Popli Khalatbari Charity Foundation, run by Diana Khalatbari. Khalatbari is an extraordinary woman who loves her country dearly and does everything in her power to educate children, especially those living in disadvantaged conditions – such as refugees from Afghanistan.
As soon as we meet the kids, we realise they are no regular Iranian children. They speak Dari, an eastern version of Farsi. They are the sons of immigrants, most of them Hazaras who have fled decades of conflict in their home country.
The foundation takes care of the children and we will be working alongside them to supplement their education using sport.
Our coaches, Alberto Giacomini and Roberto Redaelli, with the invaluable support of local coordinator Leyla Amin and her nephew Ali – who translate our instructions out on the pitches – kick things off by working with the local instructors.
The idea is to create an ongoing sports-based programme which will get kids off the streets and support their wider education.
As is always the case, there were great scenes as we presented the children with their Inter jerseys. From now on, they will benefit from coaches trained by the Inter Campus technical area – all backed up by the Popli Khalatbari Charity Foundation’s support.
When it was time for us to leave, the children linked arms and ran around us in a circle, cheering our names. The local instructors, meanwhile, gave us a work of Persian calligraphy with a quote by King Cyrus the Great: "I won’t walk the road of life twice, but let me serve my people as best I can in this life."
It is a worthy lesson, and as we accept we vow to return to serve these wonderful people, to repay their generosity and affection as best we can.
