Sport2build was born from the desire to be able to offer to all children and youths who find themselves in situations of emergency, poverty and social degradation, both at a national and international level, an effective tool to enable their psycho-social and physical development.
In 2006 the two founders, Serena and Matteo, already committed also to other international cooperation for development projects in Zambia, started organizing in their free time, various running races involving an always increasing number of people reaching up to 500 participants from 6 to 40 years of age. The two annual circuits called “Never Give Up Race” over the years have become a set appointment in the Kafue community, expect with trepidation especially among the youngest categories such as the under 12. The race becomes a possibility for aggregation, competition, fun, refreshments are always assured, and at times it represents the only meal they will be able to have.
Slowly also weekly training sessions begin, new teams are born and new coaches are discovered, it is easy to realize that the social impact is much higher than expected and certainly much higher than the mere athletic preparation.
In 2009 also football is introduced, and the participants boom, almost 2000.
During trainings and mainly during final matches, social messages are delivered, from HIV/AIDS sensitisations to the importance of education, from environmental awareness to respect for oneself and others.
In 2010 Matteo and Serena decide it is time to give a formal structure to their years long commitment and Sport2build Onlus is born with a specific vision and methodology.
SERENA BORSANI: PRESIDENT AND CO-FUNDER
“Sport is a very powerful tool but is not a magic box, it is a neutral box that must be filled with the right ingredients to achieve the expected result considering the context and the need”.
Sport has always been one of Serena’s passions. She was a strong member of her swimming team since a very young age, a talent which developed from 1996 into her professional career as a triathlete.
Just a year later she completed her Master degree in Economics from the University of Sacred Heart in Milan.
She managed to combine her commitment to triathlon with ability to reach out to disadvantaged youth through vocational training. Her experience in teaching highlighted the many faults of formal education to deliver to the most vulnerable and the idea that sport could be the missing link began to develop.
“Each person has a talent and good qualities. Sport and recreational activities can help in discovering and developing it”.
In 2006 she moved to Zambia where as a Project Coordinator Assistant she successfully achieved the sustainability of the vocational school and the production units of St. Ambrose Trade Centre.
Her belief that sport could be used as a tool for social change and development encouraged her to research on the role of sport in trauma healing within the process of peace and reconciliation as her final dissertation for the Master of Arts in Human Rights and Conflict Management at Scuola Sant’Anna in Pisa using her experience in Kenya as Project Assistant with IOM after the post election violence as case study.
Since 2009 she is the successful Project Coordinator of a EU co-funded project in the rural area of Chikupi in Zambia, where a vocational school for the most vulnerable youths and dropouts is associated to the establishment of income generating activities to ensure the self-sustainability of the school.
Aware of the fundamental role of sport as tool for social change, community and child development, she has been organizing since 2006 the Never Give Up running circuit and the Never Give Up Football League in which more than 2000 children and youth take part every year.
She collaborates with Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, with some Sport for development and peace lectures well combining theory with practice.
MATTEO SAMETTI: DIRECTOR AND CO-FUNDER
“I truly understood what discipline, hard work and commitment is thanks to sport”. Deeply passionate about sport, Matteo Sametti effectively combined his passion with a successful career. After graduating at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan with top marks in a Master Degree in Economics, he started a 10 year long career in auditing and accountancy in high profile companies. At the same time he developed his sport profile and passion including cycling, triathlon and running. No mountain is too high for Matteo, who climbed Kilimanjaro in 1998 and has learnt that everything can be achieved when your heart and mind is focused. In 2006 he moved to Zambia where as Project Coordinator of St. Ambrose Trade Centre he managed to ensure its complete sustainability preparing for the handover to the local community thanks to effective innovations and a new approach to cooperation for development. He loves challenges and finds inspiration in long and tough bike rides where there is only the bike, the road, the effort and himself just like his self discovery ride from Barcelona to Milan. He also succeeded in presenting a ground-breaking project to the EU, which started in 2009 combining high quality education to vulnerable youths with income generating activities to ensure the project sustainability. Aware of the fundamental role sport had in his life, Matteo introduced a sport program for the children of Kafue who were for the first time involved in organized sport activities. Since 2006, the running circuit Never Give Up gives the opportunity to more than 400 children to take part in running competitions and trainings learning the important lesson of commitment, discipline and hard work.
GIORGIA MARCHITELLI: SPORT COORDINATOR
Still a university student at Scienze Internazionale e Diplomatiche in Gorizia, Giorgia Marchitelli felt that children were the forgotten members of today’s society, hence her lifelong involvement in the development and implementation of children’s programs where children have the right to be heard, interact and grow form an holistic point of view contributing to the overall development of society. First as a Multicultural Mediator in Gorizia and later as one of the few using tailored swimming lessons as a tool of social integration for disadvantaged minority and immigrant children in London.
She cultivated her passion and interest for Africa in a Master in African Studies at the School for Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 2007, an interest which was born in 2000 as a volunteer in a Nelson Mandela Children Fund centre in South Africa where she had the opportunity to meet the iconic man, a constant inspiration in her work.
Zambia became the opportunity to implement and put into practice some important lessons. The Never Give Up Football League in 2010 saw 2000 children and youths involved in sport and life skills activities aimed at their social, physical and psychological development with a strong and broad involvement and participation of the local community.