Sports and Rehabilitation : what did the children & youth in detention think of it

Official figures show that a total of 542 Romanian children and young people deprived of freedom are housed in two detention centres (Craiova and Tichilești), and two educational centres (Buziaș and Târgu Ocna) with which the Terre des hommes Foundation collaborates.

How would these children's lives change if they could take part in sport? The Tdh team asked this when proposing a set of solutions to develop the life skills of these children and young people. The project, "Sports for Children and Young People Deprived of Liberty", lasted four months and was funded by the program "In stare de bine", supported by Kaufland Romania, and implemented by the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society.

The project involved young people in sporting activities carried out according to the Movement, Game and Sport method, wherein all participants are winners. This places the emphasis on collaboration, and rules are changed to encourage empathy and respect.

What did the children think?

"From this activity, I learned that you do much better when you collaborate with your colleague. At first they explained the rules for the game, they were different than we knew. Initially, we didn't like it, we didn't really understand why we weren't allowed to put the ball directly in the opponents' court and why we had to pass it to another teammate. But then we got used to it, and we realized that it's nicer to play in a team and it's good when everyone is involved. You have to understand your colleagues in order to win. We haven't had so much fun together in a long time. "

"After the activity, our condition changed completely. Even those who lost and were upset still felt good in the end. We all had something to gain, after all, we played together and learned new things. "

"We played the relay and one of the tests was to stay on one leg as long as possible. We on the side-lines applauded and supported the colleague who was standing on one leg. He told us at the end that he lasted over half an hour precisely because we supported him! His confidence increased because the rest of us supported him! "

"We were punished if we swore. We had to control our anger even if we lost. We had to be calm. In the post-activity discussion, we understood where we went wrong and how to do better next time."

"The discussion with the performance athlete, Mr. Manu, was an honour for us. He told us how he came to succeed in life. He taught us that we must persevere, overcome obstacles, fight for what we want. Even though he, like us, had difficulties in life, he managed to get far. We found ourselves in his story. I gained more confidence and learned that winning means 99% work and only 1% talent. ”

The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the "In stare de bine" program.