A good example of a social development through sports...
Through its performances, Buffalo has gradually
grown up, from local championships organized in Kano State to the national
level, from an amateur statute to the semi professional one. The ultimate target
in sports is to reach the 1st division, the top of the football league in
Nigeria.
More than a sports success, the real success is for the players coming mostly
from the less privileged regions of Kano, a real personal achievement; the
reward for their efforts is to be well recognized by all at last as an example
that other young people are ready to follow.
The present success in sports doesn’t make the founders of Buffalo football club
forget that the initial idea still remains:
Sport, as a factor for social integration and
personal responsibility.
Some activities in a poor environment...
The
clubhouse, the dispensary and the training fields are located in a
popular area Badawa in
the suburbs of
Kano, north of Nigeria.
In fact, football is a very nice way to improve the conditions
of life of many people:
The
members of the club of course, but also their families
who benefit from the income of the players. Such funds are used by families to
settle the accommodation expenses and to assist the younger ones in their
education.
The supporters take
also
advantage from the dynamics generated around the
club
in a socially under favored, difficult and low
motivating environment.
The inhabitants of Badawa image has improved tremendously through the success of
Buffalo. Indeed, the place was known before for the insecurity, the violence and
the bad area boys. Now, the place is more recognized for its football team
Buffalo, a model to be followed by many young people
living all around.
By removing the teenagers from the streets,
sport is also providing an
alternative for these young people to the
negatives influences (lack of
activity,
joblessness, violence, drugs…) found in this
kind of sensible areas.
The different allowances and match bonuses enable the players to get
legitimate income other than the illegal ones
they get from theft, sale of drugs, or prostitution. Small
loans are given to members to enable them start
small projects that can help generate further income.
And finally ,
by
giving them a project in their life ,sports
keeps them away from any religious
or ethnical integrism.
In fact, Buffalo gathers
people from different
cultures
and different religions around a common
project.
For a better health...
At the
beginning of the history of the club, many of our players used to miss trainings
due to weakness of the body and different sickness.
It's the reason why we created
a small dispensary
where
the players and the staff can receive basic treatment.
Our qualified nurse gives them also some advice to improve their
feeding and how to prevent themselves from some diseases,
like AIDS.
By extension, from mouths to ears, all their family at home benefit
definitely from this teaching.
When somebody is more seriously affected, she prefers to send him to
hospital to receive better treatment and the club takes care of
the bill.
Some real actions of
development can also be engaged in the quarter, like the repair of the gutters,
the distribution of water and the
collect of the waste. An assistance to the local
associations can be targetted as well...
For a better education
In addition to the above, we are also dealing with furthering
the education of our members by helping them to settle their
school fees or by
providing
different
alphabetization
courses
for the ones who are not able to read or
write and
English courses
for the ones who have left school very early.
We also give them an opportunity to learn another language through
various French courses.
The different allowances, match bonuses and
loans can help
our players to
resume and finance themselves theirs studies
or can help the elder to attend some professional skills
acquisition programs.
These funds can also help them to open a small workshop where they where they can get some income that give them a
chance to be more independent and to
assist their family.
The elaboration of a website enable the members of Buffalo to improve the relations with the supporters especially the more remote ones, to spread a better promotion of the activities of the Club and to exchange some information in a bilingual way with other countries. Again, this website allows the young to exist over the borders of Kano State and familiarizes them with computer sciences. The ultimate target is that the members are able to update themselves a part of the website...
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All
the activities of Buffalo have stopped in Kano after the transfer of the club to the new capital where other similar actions will
be done. But, we are thinking of coming back to Kano soon and open sport classes
in a school...
Deep
inside the popular area, Badawa, Kano
F.Noy
The clubhouse and the
dispensary in Badawa
The nurse treating a teenager
inside the dispensary in Kano
a French course organized in yard
of the clubhouse
If you wish to know some of our future projects, please, click here