A group of 18 students from Sogndal Folkehøgskule visited the social project in Bancários (Rio de Janeiro) this semester. The Norwegian visitors got the chance to meet the boys and girls from the local community, check out the NGO school and even played a friendly match with Casas da Noruega football team. Takk for besøket!

Casas de Noruega female football team is leading Copa Carioca Fut7 with 13 points, in Rio de Janeiro. "We are in first place at the table with two rounds left to go to the semifinal of the championship," explains the coach and responsible for the NGO's sports activities in Bancários, Jair Ferreira.

Embracing gender issues is very important goal in the social project. The NGO offers football practices for young girls and teenagers since the start of the activities in Bancários, a poor local community in Ilha do Governador, Rio de Janeiro.

The next game is scheduled to be on Sunday, June 3, against Team Figueirinha. Follow the news of the women's team and the social project Casas da Noruega via our Facebook page and Instagram (links at the top right of this page).

This month, Casas da Noruega celebrates 9 years as an NGO in Brazil. Throughout the years, the goal is still the same: to give new opportunities to young children and teenagers in poor local communities.

Back in 2009, the social project drew a plan with the support of sport: to offer extra education activities at the community to keep kids busy studying and playing football and away from drugs and crime. In order to make this a reality, the NGO built a school and a football court, in Bancários, Ilha do Governador (Rio de Janeiro).  

Naturally, the football practice organized by the coaches Jair and Gilson got very popular among the students at the community. However, all boys and girls interested in being part of the football team must sign up and attend one of the classes at the school first. Since the beginning, the school have been offering English, Math, Music and Computer classes. Today, the school has 520 kids registered.

Plus, many social activities were organized around the school: clothing campaigns donated by Norwegian private sponsors, health campaigns during dengue outbreak in 2016, several Easter and Christmas celebrations and also some special visits, like BES and Nasta.

Meanwhile, as a result of the hard work and dedication of the sport project, Casas da Noruega brought the male football team to compete in Norway twice: in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, the boys won Norway Cup and Sandarcupen and last year, the team won again at Sandarcupen, a local tournament held in Norwegian city Sandefjord. The athletics team also came to Norway in 2017 to be part of the Veidekkelekene organized in Lillehammer in March. The male team finished in 2nd and 3rd in 4/60mts and Anna Júlia won the silver medal in 60mts.

Casas da Noruega goals for 2018 is to keep up the sport, the social and the educational activities in poor community in Brazil focusing in new opportunities for the youth.
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