Minor-Ndako Sport: running club

Action accessible to all including newly arrived migrants

PROJECT OWNER

Name of the project owner: Minor-Ndako
Status of the project owner:  National NGO
Area of work of the project owner: Sport / Migration / Youth / Social integration / Intercultural exchange / Health
Website of Minor-Ndako

PROJECT

 Belgium
Geographic scope of project: Regional
Project objective: Promote social diversity / Develop language skills / Educate and transmit values through sport / Practice a physical activity for physical/mental health / Develop intercultural relations and/or intercultural competency
Type of sport or physical activity carried out: Running
Partnership / supports: Legal (Flemish Community Commission) / Other partner (ThinkTalent)
Project duration: Structural ongoing project (start: February 2014)
Project status: Underway
Supervising staff: Professionals / Volunteers
Summary of the project: Minor-Ndako offers adapted care and helps children, youngsters and their context in problematic situations. We focus on children from all over the world, in particular the most vulnerable among them. Most of our youngsters are non-accompanied minors. Participation and inclusion in society are the cornerstones of our approach. We assure qualitative aid and offer children and youngsters a warm nest that gives them energy and power to go on with their lives. With persistent engagement we aim at finding a durable solution for each of them. In 2014 and 2015 we founded Minor-Ndako Sports: a running club and an indoor football team (Futsal). The running club of Minor-Ndako was founded in 2014  after running the 20k of Brussels. From then on we run each year around seven races in Brussels (10k of Brussels, 20k of Brussels, Brussels Ekiden, Brussels Marathon and half Marathon, Color Run, etc.). We train every week on Tuesday evening in the centre of Brussels. To lead the training we hired two voluntary coaches. Everyone can join training and races. Next to the individual benefits of running (the mental and physical advantages of running), we strongly believe in the social role of running. Our youngsters have often a very limited social network. We train and run races with a mix of youngsters,  assistants of Minor-Ndako and sympathizers (friends, etc.). We have the same goal and through running we start to know each other: sport is a very beautiful and powerful tool to unite and bind people.

TARGET GROUP

Country of origin: Our youngsters are non-accompanied minors from: Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Morocco, Albania

Type of migration: Refugee / Asylum seeker / Economic migrant
Target beneficiary: Children / Teenager-Young people
Target age group: 11-20 / 21-30