“Without Rugby Para Todos, I might’ve gone down a different path, a bad path, a path without any future.”
Brazil back Robert Tenório does not downplay the impact the Rugby Para Todos project had on his life.
Poverty is a constant blight on Tenório’s homeland, with around a quarter of the country experiencing some level of deprivation. There is deep inequality across Brazil, with images of the ‘favelas’ taking centre stage every time there’s a police raid or a war between rival gangs. For the majority of those who live on those sloping mountains of precarious dwellings, it is an unfortunate reality most will never escape. Few care about their existence, and even fewer have the willingness to provide the tools for change.
For the kids born into a world of danger, problems and scarcity, it may feel they are destined for failure. This isn’t sensationalism or some way to shock the reader; this is reality as we know it.
However, sometimes there are those who muster the courage to fight against the odds, even if they are on the positive side of fate, such as Maurício Draghi and Fabrício Kobashi. Born and raised in São Paulo, the two were friends from a young age, playing rugby together in their local club and even the Brazilian age-grade national teams. They were born with all the comforts in the world, but they understood others weren’t, and because of that, they had to do something about it.
“There’s like an invisible wall between the ‘rich’ part of São Paulo and the Paraisópolis favela,” Draghi explains, “We were taught not to go there and to avoid making any contact with it, but it is impossible as some of the inhabitants went to the same school as us or shared the same public areas.
“The kids’ eyes shone whenever we kicked or passed the rugby ball. And so we said to ourselves, ‘Let’s go deep inside Paraisópolis and bring rugby to them’.”
Most kids had health issues, no boots or even shoes, they lacked direction and attention. We were confronted with a reality we were not ready to tackle.
Paraisópolis (you could translate it to Paradise-polis) is the third-biggest favela in all of South America, just behind its ‘brother’ Heliopolis, another favela in São Paulo. Inhabited by 58,000 people, most of them live in poor conditions with some even deprived of the most basic human needs. Draghi, who lived his entire life in the beautiful and historical Morumbi neighbourhood, shares why he decided to pick up a rugby ball and walk into one of the most challenging places in the continent.
“We were appalled by the social differences that exist in our society. We were lucky to grow up in a good household, but others weren’t, and we couldn’t accept that only a few wanted to help people in need.
“I paid to play rugby; I had the opportunity to be happy with the oval ball. The kids who couldn’t afford it were segregated from experiencing that same joy, and me and Fabrício couldn’t just stand idly by. Things have largely improved, and rugby nowadays is a sport for all in Brazil.”
Draghi remembers his time as an Under-21 international for Brazil, explaining only kids from a very special elite could afford to play the game. No black or native Brazilians had the chance to participate, and people from poor backgrounds had no viable route to the top.
With that in mind, they decided to demolish the wall dividing those who had the budget to play rugby from those who hadn’t a chance even to try it. In 2004, they marched themselves up Paraisópolis to reach the mythical Campo do palmeirinha.
“We got to the Campo do palmeirinha and found out that the pitch supervisor worked in our school! His name was Chiquinho, and he gave us the ‘keys’ to the kingdom. Be it luck or destiny, it was meant to be.
“Unfortunately, our first session was cut short because it started to rain, but we gave flyers to the 40 kids that showed up inviting them and their friends to come to the next week’s training session. Come that day, there were 100 kids waiting for us.”
One hundred children had shown up to try rugby, a sport none of them had ever heard about. It was a fresh new world not only for those kids and their families, but for Draghi and Kobashi as well, as the former tells us.
“Most kids had health issues, no boots or even shoes, they lacked direction and attention. We were confronted with a reality we were not ready to tackle. So, we brought doctors, we tried to provide snacks. I remember a friend of ours, who worked at a dairy factory, gave us some chocolate milk carton boxes so we could distribute it after practice. At some point we were able to get nutritionists, psychologists and social workers involved in the programme. We just wanted the kids to have a fair shot at life.”
Be it counselling, catering food, getting them or their families into a job network – our idea is to provide the best possible chance for them to be successful in life.
And thus, the Rugby Para Todos project was created. They went from two sessions a week to four in just under six months, with schedules for girls and boys. They adapted the World Rugby methodology to teach kids rugby, to the reality of Paraisópolis, developing a structured system which could improve much more than what was happening in the practice sessions.
“Our work goes beyond the child, as we also look to help in any way we can in their environment at home,” Draghi says. “Be it counselling, catering food, getting them or their families into a job network – our idea is to provide the best possible chance for them to be successful in life.”
Since 2004, Rugby Para Todos has helped more than 5,000 children. It currently has 300 enrolled in the project with the team developing ways of inspiring their students.
“We fashioned a new way to grade the kids’ behaviour and development, making it more challenging and enticing for them to keep dreaming and working.” Draghi goes on.
“We want them to not only dream of going big, but to take that chance when it comes around. Be it like Robert [Tenório] and Leila [Silva] who have played for Brazil or the ones who can continue progressing even if they stop playing rugby, our goal is to provide them a platform they can stand on.”
Tenório and Silva are just two of the kids who were welcomed into the scheme, growing to become legends of the Leões and Leoas de Paraisópolis, the local rugby club. But Draghi tells us about the project’s first success story, David Prates.
“He started at 11 and after five years he began working with the project as an assistant coach. He was the first Leão de Paraisópolis to play for another team, he was the first of the programme to play for Brazil’s U20s and the first to play for the Tupis [Brazil’s senior national team]. He was more than a role model; he inspired us to keep going and believing in the project.”
With Prates setting a standard, others would eventually follow in his footsteps. Bianca Silva, Leila Silva, Tenório, Robert Varejão, Eshyleen Coimbra, Adrio Mello and Brendon Alves, to name a few of those who were nurtured by the project. Tenório, now one of the main faces of the Brazilian men’s national team, makes a strong case for why the Rugby Para Todos was a vital aid to so many.
“The Rugby Para Todos changes lives. I was always picking fights and complaining when I first got there like many other kids, but after a time we settled down and started to change our ways and behaviours.
“I have friends who didn’t have big goals when they were kids, and now they are finishing their degrees in Sports and Conditioning because the project opened their horizons.”
To be able to break the chains of the fate that was primarily set upon us means everything.
Although Tenório wasn’t born in Paraisópolis, he moved there with his mother when he was six. As she worked long hours, the now-Test match centre had too much time on his hands and was already causing havoc with his friends. Fortunately, due to another friend, he gave Rugby Para Todos a go.
“I was a bit nervous on that first day but the way I was treated by the staff and older players made me feel at home. It was different from what I had previously experienced in other sports. They wanted me to have fun, to learn, to have discipline and focus and, above all else, to feel that I was part of something.”
For him, the Campo do palmeirinha-based initiative changed the course of his life, allowing him to dream and have a real fighting chance to be happy.
“To be able to break the chains of the fate that was primarily set upon us means everything. Maybe I was lucky with who my coaches were and when I started, but the fact is they helped me and believed in my potential. I want to help others find that same luck and push their boundaries.”
Leila Silva, one of the Yaras brightest stars, is to this day besotted by Rugby Para Todos and the women’s team created from the project, the Leoas de Paraisópolis, even if at first, she didn’t fancy rugby.
“A few friends were going to the Rugby Para Todos for a training session, and I came along. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it. They were having fun and all, and I was just like ‘No, this isn’t for me’. I thought it was boring, too exhausting. But after a few more sessions I started getting into the groove.”
Silva became a devotee after playing in a children’s tournament, and began spreading the rugby gospel throughout her community.
“After the tournament I went running back home and to school telling every friend of mine to join me. ‘You have to come! When we score a try, we all celebrate! Come on, come with me tomorrow.’ To this day some of those friends I pushed to join me are still playing and working within rugby.”
But what were the de facto changes in these youngsters’ mindsets? How did Draghi, Kobashi and their fellow staff members push them to chase their dreams?
For some, this was the only ray of sunlight in their lives. You could find people who had to skip school to help their parents at work; others who had problems at home. But when they stepped on to the field, everything went away.
“They used to tell us the same words over and over again: have fun, study, be disciplined, work for your dreams and never stop believing,” Silva explains.
“Let me tell you a story of how they tried to inspire us to be better.
“We would get a prize at the end of the year if we had been well behaved in school, practices and home. We couldn’t skip class, our grades had to be good and our conduct while training had to be positive. If you had failed in any of these areas, you would get a red pipe; if you had been mildly average, you would get a yellow one; but if you had done well, you would get a green one. We collected those throughout the year and on the last day we could trade them for a prize! I won an All Blacks shirt once, without even knowing who the All Blacks were at the time!”
The truth is her life turned out to be something out of a comic book story, having grown to become a full fledged Yara who is close to play in the next Women’s Rugby World Cup.
“It changed my whole life. It changed how I looked at my future. And it wasn’t only me; it was all who went through the Rugby Para Todos. We started to dream about new possibilities and opportunities because of it.
“For some, this was the only ray of sunlight in their lives. You could find people who had to skip school to help their parents at work; others who had problems at home. But when they stepped into the Palmeirinha, everything went away.”
Tenório agrees with his fellow international.
“We had to fight from the very first second, especially when most of us were born and/or raised in Paraisópolis. We were destined for failure, to never achieve anything and to fall into a life of troubles. But the Rugby Para Todos didn’t allow us to fall. The people in the project were always there to lift us up, giving us the right tools to overcome our predetermined existence. For that, I can only say thank you.”
For Draghi, having former students in the Brazilian national teams is just a small part of the project’s success.
“If in the beginning it was two white boys coaching these kids and managing the project, nowadays it’s those kids leading the charge and taking over our roles. This was our vision in 2004.”
However, even after 21 uninterrupted years working across four locations, they are still facing challenges to keep Rugby Para Todos alive.
“The project has survived until this point because of a bunch of insane people – me being one of them. We are now trying to reach the next stage: financial sustainability. To evolve to the next level, we need to have a robust budget to allow us to expand and sleep a bit better at night. If we survived the pandemic, we can survive anything.”
This story is about those who are dealt life’s cruellest hand. The kids who haven’t the means to try rugby because they can’t afford a pair of boots, let alone pay club fees. Life isn’t fair, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to make it better, especially for those who never had the opportunity to be happy.
Maurício and Fabrício could’ve stayed in their lane, lived a life of comfort and worried only about their first world problems. They didn’t. They walked a different path, one which took them deep inside Paraisópolis to show rugby could break walls and point the way to a better life for others.
Five thousand children found a piece of happiness in Rugby Para Todos. Some have become international stars; others continued their studies and qualified as lawyers, bankers, sports coaches, historians and social workers.
It’s not a matter of if we can do it — it’s a matter of when you get involved, just like they did.
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