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 wiere done. But, we were thinking of coming back to Kano  and open sport classes in a school. But some problems beyond our control prevented it...
 

 If you wish to know some of our planned projects, please, click here

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