Uisp Modena reopens martial arts school in Vila Mimosa: 'Indo Juntos' project

After eight years of halting activities, due "first to the bankruptcy of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro and then to Covid", Uisp Modena, with her ODV Uisp Modena Solidarietà, returned to Rio to reopen a martial arts school in the district of Villa Mimosa.

"A neighborhood of about 6000 inhabitants - says Paolo Belluzzi, president of Uisp Modena Solidarietà - in which over 400 children under 14 have no structure near their homes, neither schools nor sports facilities. The only meeting places are bars and commercial activities connected to prostitution, which is the reason why the area is sadly known. The kids go to school in another neighborhood, therefore, and none of them can play sports".

The first project, a judo school, was born over ten years ago: "As Uisp we intercepted this need in 2012 - continues Belluzzi - then working on an aggregative project that used the spaces of a public clinic, the only social center in the area, relying on the Amocavim association, the association of the neighborhood's residents that has been with us since the beginning. Up until 2016 we educated over 70 children in sport, also bringing them to live the experience of visiting the Olympic Park during the Games".

The 2016 Games were one of the causes of the municipality's failure: no more spaces, then, and after a few years the problem of closures due to Covid. In December 2023, contacts were reactivated with Amocavim, which in the meantime had taken over the premises of the former clinic, in 2024 the classroom was rearranged. Thanks then to maestro Alfredo Apicella and Coni Brazil, a new course was organized, this time of karate, which already involves two classes of 15 boys and girls each, on Saturday mornings.

"After eight years we are happy to rebuild a community space based on sports activity – concludes Belluzzi –. In this way we offer a new generation of boys and girls the educational and social opportunity that only sport can give. Now the goal is to give continuity to this project that we have called 'Indo-Juntos', walking together".

The activity enjoys the support of the Municipality of Maranello, a historic partner of Uisp Modena Solidarietà, while the first kimonos arrived in Brazil thanks to the collection of the Uisp Modena Oriental Disciplines sector.

Alessandro Trebbi