{"id":45161,"date":"2018-07-15T10:10:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T13:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=45161"},"modified":"2018-07-20T10:41:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T13:41:29","slug":"teenager-from-penha-2018-street-child-world-cup-champion-shares-impressions-from-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=45161","title":{"rendered":"Teenager from Penha, 2018 Street Child World Cup Champion, Shares Impressions from Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The 2018 World Cup in Russia is coming to an end, but 15-year-old Ana Clara Ferreira da Silva and her friends from Penha<\/a>, in Rio\u2019s North Zone<\/a>, have\u00a0already won the championship<\/a> earlier this year. In May, 24 teams from around the world <\/em>participated in the Street Child World Cup, which aims to \u201cchange negative perceptions and the treatment of street children<\/a>.\u201d The girls\u2019 team from Complexo da Penha, with players aged 15 to 17 years old, represented Brazil and are part of the Fam\u00edlia Caracol<\/a> project. This team from Complexo da Penha also won the 2014 Street Child World Cup<\/a> in Brazil.<\/em><\/p>\n

The team trains in the Caracol favela, in Complexo da Penha, where the Fam\u00edlia Caracol program<\/a> is based. \u201cFam\u00edlia Caracol offers the opportunity of a safe space for [the children] to play and stay far away from danger. The project was created and is managed by the United Association of Street Children, a Brazilian nonprofit organization that supports three local coaches to work with the boys and girls on a daily basis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Below, Ana shares reflections with RioOnWatch on the tournament and her trip to Russia.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My trip to Russia was fantastic, even more so because I was there to do what I love most in life. Before this trip, the “farthest” place I had ever traveled was Nossa Senhora Aparecida with my family. The feeling of flying in an airplane was remarkable. Before, the highest altitude I had ever experienced was at the theme park near my house. Now, I feel important\u2014I have a passport and I’ve already been to the other side of the world. It even seems like something from a soap opera.<\/p>\n

And what to say about Russia… it’s a beautiful country. We were very well-received and people treated us very well. I thought that Russians’ eating habits were particularly different. It was funny when I learned at the hotel that they serve pasta in the morning and bread in the afternoon. But it\u2019s all good, right? Another country, another culture. And not everything was that different. In terms of food, I really liked the delicious cakes and fries… Before, I had thought that we, Brazilians, ate the most fries\u2014but I was wrong! All of the 24 other countries love potatoes too.<\/p>\n

As game day approached, I felt a chill in my stomach and started to tremble. It was a different feeling, but I knew that it wasn\u2019t just about soccer. It was because of everything\u2014making friendships, learning about different cultures, and sharing ours. Because of the language barrier, one of my major challenges was speaking, but I had a very good friend that helped me: Google Translate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Initially, when I was selected for this opportunity, I thought that I would make the most of every moment during the trip to show off my soccer skills. However, when I arrived, I realized that it was also important for me to have fun and make new friends because this was a unique opportunity. I achieved this opportunity with a lot of dedication.<\/p>\n

Whenever we had games, the most relaxed moment was when we took the bus to travel to the match venue. Certainly, it was the most exciting, even more so when the teams from Belarus and Bolivia were on the same bus with us. We sang and played together. Often, until it was time for us to be quiet, it was just happiness.<\/p>\n

The days when we had conferences and art activities were also very important to me. There, I heard stories experienced by other teenagers and also talked a bit about myself. I was able to create great friendships. We painted, danced, and sang Shosholoza<\/a> (since it was the only song we knew how to sing). We did all of this freely\u2014even dancing our own passinho,\u00a0<\/em>which we couldn\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n

The presentations from other countries were also marvelous and incredible. Each dance and song was different than ours, and each one was more beautiful than the last.<\/p>\n

There was a moment when I felt a bit numb and anesthetized upon hearing stories from children who didn\u2019t have parents. However, they still had fun, laughed, and joked, and they didn\u2019t show their pain or anything like it.<\/p>\n

Arriving here, the best and most remarkable moment for me was succeeding with my entire team, being champions. We won the Street Child World Cup! It was incredible. My heart beat rapidly and I shed tears. There was a lot of adrenaline. I really hope that this changes my life, as well as the lives of the other girls, and I hope that there will be future opportunities for us in women\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ana Clara Ferreira da Silva, 15 years old, was born and raised in Penha, in the community of 4 Bicas. The neighborhood is the birthplace of her entire family, on both her mother’s and father’s sides. Ana has played soccer since she was five years old, getting a start by playing in the street with the boys.<\/em><\/p>\n

How to Help Projeto Caracol<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The grounds of the soccer pitch in the Caracol community have recently been damaged by the strong rains of February and March, 2018. For this, the \u201cSafe Space\u201d soccer program\u2014created and maintained by the NGO Street Child United Brazil\u2014is holding a crowdfunding campaign to rebuild the pitch.<\/p>\n

To support their campaign click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The 2018 World Cup in Russia is coming to an end, but 15-year-old Ana Clara Ferreira da Silva and her friends from Penha, in Rio\u2019s North Zone, have\u00a0already won the championship […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":45163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,1328,1268,1271,1503],"tags":[812,221,436,516,37,193,1173,207,1171,1017,259],"writer":[2769],"translator":[2575],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-by-community-contributors","9":"category-favelaculture","10":"category-favelaqualities","11":"category-opportunities-to-support-favelas","12":"tag-empowerment","13":"tag-favela-culture","14":"tag-gender","15":"tag-homeless","16":"tag-north-zone","17":"tag-penha","18":"tag-soccer","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-street-child-world-cup","21":"tag-childrens-rights","22":"tag-youth","23":"writer-ana-clara-ferreira-da-silva","24":"translator-melinda-gurr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45161"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=45161"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=45161"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=45161"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=45161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}